Tesla is experiencing its first difficulties
- The world's leading carmaker of battery electric vehicles, Tesla, is experiencing its first difficulties, after several years of strong and uninterrupted growth. The Californian carmaker produced 1.85 million electric vehicles in 2023, compared to 1.37 million in 2022, 930 000 in 2021 and 500 000 in 2020.
- The start of 2024 marks a clear slowdown in production, with 401,000 vehicles produced in the first quarter compared to 408,000 in the first quarter of 2023. The most noticeable month, is March 2024 (97,000 units) down by 58,000 units. compared to March 2023, which is not entirely attributable to the one week pause of production in Berlin. More generally, Tesla saw its global deliveries drop by 8.5% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2023. As a result, falling sales and stable production led to an increase in inventories which went from 21 days to 37 days(i.e. 160,000 cars). The carmaker could lay off 10% of its workforce, or 14,000 people. The question is whether this difficulty is specific to Tesla or whether it is a general trend e of the electric vehicle market.
- Tesla has difficulties to renew and expand its range. Model S is 12 years old (with an in-depth facelift in 2021), Model X is 9 years old (also deeply facelifted in 2021), Model 3 is 7 years old, and Model Y is 4 years old. The launch of the Model 2 was postponed to a later date and the incessant price changes eventually tired customers, prospects and fleet managers (like Hertz).
- Regarding the BEV market, it seems to be slowing down since February 2024, especially in countries that have ended subsidies for the purchase of BEVs such as Germany. Tesla is suffering from this slowdown, like other BEV carmakers.