Tesla reported it delivered 336,681 vehicles globally in the first quarter of 2025. That number landed two days after its stock closed the worst quarter it’s had since 2022. The drop marks the sixth month in a row that sales have fallen.
The delivery figure is down from 386,810 a year earlier, and way below what investors had expected. StreetAccount had forecasts between 360,000 and 370,000, while Kalshi estimated 352,000. Tesla’s own investor relations team told select analysts to expect 377,590. They missed all of them.
Production didn’t help either. The company built 362,615 vehicles this quarter, a fall from 433,371 in Q1 2024. Elon Musk’s factories slowed down after planned partial shutdowns for equipment upgrades. These changes were meant to get the lines ready to pump out a redesigned version of the Model Y, which is still the company’s top-seller.
China burns Elon Musk as local competition wins big
In March, Tesla sold 78,828 vehicles in China, which is 11.5% lower than the same time last year. The numbers came from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). Even though March looked better than February’s 30,688, the bigger picture still looks grim. Chinese carmakers like BYD and Geely are running circles around Musk. BYD sold 371,419 new energy vehicles in March alone, a 23% rise from last year. Geely pushed out 119,696, up 167%.
Elon’s problems in China are bigger than just numbers. He’s dealing with backlash tied to his political involvement. After spending $290 million to get Donald Trump back into the White House, Elon took charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, where he’s now cutting tens of thousands of federal jobs and killing off regulations. These moves sparked protests, boycotts, and actual attacks on Tesla properties.
The same political drama is killing Tesla’s image in Europe. In February, Elon showed public support for the AfD, a far-right anti-immigrant party in Germany. Sales there got smoked. Data from EU-EVs.com showed Tesla’s battery electric vehicle market share in Germany dropped to 4%, down from 16% in Q1 2024. Across 15 European countries, Tesla’s share fell to 17.9%, compared to 9.3% at the same time last year.
Elon isn’t hiding from any of it. During an internal company call, he told workers that he still believes the Model Y will be “the best-selling car on Earth again this year.” That’s what he said, even though the company only delivered 323,800 Model 3 and Model Y cars from January to March. Production for those two models came in at 345,454. The rest of Tesla’s lineup—Cybertruck and others—only made up 12,881 deliveries combined.
Stock crashes hard after worst quarter in years
Tesla’s stock cratered 36% in Q1 2025, its sharpest drop since Q4 of 2022, and the third-worst quarter since the company went public fifteen years ago. The hit erased $460 billion from Tesla’s market value. After that beating, the company’s stock fell again—3.04% lower by 08:04 a.m. EST in premarket trading on Wednesday.
The company didn’t break out sales by region or model in its official report, as usual. Tesla also didn’t define what it means by “deliveries.” But that’s always been the case. The numbers are all anyone’s got.
The new version of the Model Y, launched in January, was supposed to help recover some ground. But even with the upgraded production lines, the model couldn’t save the quarter. Not with local competitors stealing buyers, not with politics burning Tesla’s image on two continents, and definitely not with the market expecting way more than the company delivered.
And with no specific region or model breakdown in Tesla’s report, nobody knows exactly where the bleeding’s worst. But from China’s sales drop to Germany’s collapse, from the failed Model Y relaunch to the 36% stock crash, the signs are everywhere.
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