Tesla Q1 sales miss Wall Street expectations — and clock the first year-over-year quarterly decline since 2020

• Tesla sold about 386,800 cars in the first quarter of 2024.
• That's about 90,000 fewer than investors had expected.

Tesla delivered fewer cars to customers in the first three months of 2024 than Wall Street expected, it said Tuesday, marking the company's first year-over-year sales drop in nearly four years.

About 386,800 cars were marked as sold in the first quarter compared with estimates, which averaged about 477,000, according to UBS. That's a 20.1% drop from the final quarter of 2023 and 8.4% from a year ago. It's also the first year-over-year decline in quarterly deliveries since 2020, as well as the company's lowest quarterly performance since 2022. Shares fell more than 7% in early trading following the news.

Electric-vehicle sales have struggled industrywide, and Elon Musk's automaker is no exception to economic forces. Over the past year, Tesla has cut the prices of its cars significantly, hurting its profits in pursuit of sales.

"Although Tesla has announced it will raise prices in the U.S. and China effective April, we view it as an attempt to boost sales in March, rather than a sign of solid demand," Deutsche Bank analysts told clients ahead of the delivery figures' release.

Tesla's profit growth relies largely on a new, unannounced car at a much-cheaper price point — and sustained sales of its Cybertruck.

Tesla has also ratcheted up pressure on its staff to push its Full Self-Driving software on customers when they take delivery of a car. The $12,000 ($200-a-month) add-on is an important revenue driver.

In the past, Musk has emphasized the importance of Tesla's plans for autonomous driving. During an earnings call last year, Musk said that Tesla could theoretically sell its cars for no profit because of the technology.

That is, so long as Tesla can escape a growing focus from safety regulators, which forced a massive recall in March 2023.