(BFM Bourse) – The American specialist in electric vehicles is falling sharply on Wall Street as its vehicle deliveries in the last quarter reached 386,810 units, a drop of 8.5% over one year.
The market was expecting a bad quarter for Tesla. But maybe not to this extent. The automotive group specializing in electricity and led by Elon Musk dropped 5.5% at the start of the session on Wall Street. Which brings its decline over the whole of 2024 to 33.6%.
The fault lies in vehicle deliveries which are certainly penalized by exceptional events but which remain very uninviting.
Over the first three months of the year, the group delivered a total of 386,810 vehicles compared to 422,875 over the same period of 2023, reflecting a decline of 8.5%. According to Bloomberg, this is the first time that the company has seen a decline in its deliveries since 2020 and the pandemic.
Analysts had certainly lowered their projections in recent weeks, but not enough. According to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, estimates ranged from 425,000 to 475,000 units. In other words, the design offices still anticipated slight growth.
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“A nightmarish quarter”
Certainly, Tesla has not been spared from occasional problems. “The decline in volumes is partly due to the initial phase of the ramp-up of production of the new version of the Model 3 at our Fremont factory (in California, Editor’s note) and to factory shutdowns resulting from ship diversions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at the Berlin gigafactory,” the company explains.
In his note of the day, Dan Ives, speaks of “a nightmarish quarter”. “Let’s tell it like it is: while we expected a bad first quarter, it was a total disaster that is difficult to explain,” he asserts.
“We view this as a watershed moment in Tesla’s history for Musk to turn things around and reverse the first quarter trend. Otherwise, darker days could clearly lie ahead. horizon and disrupt Tesla’s long-term story,” warns the Wedbush analyst.
It is clear that today’s bad figures will give food for thought to investors who are skeptical about the evolution of Tesla shares. The group had warned when publishing its annual results that its growth could be significantly lower than that of 2023 (38% for deliveries). Previously, Tesla expected to increase its sales by 50% per year…
The group has also suffered a wave of downward revisions in analysts’ price targets in recent weeks. Morgan Stanley, for example, fears that the company will make an operational loss this year.
Xiaomi jumps on the stock market
The contrast is also striking with Xiaomi this Tuesday. While Tesla is falling on the stock market following these poor figures, the Chinese group’s action, on the other hand, soared by 9% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with a peak of around 16%.
A specialist in electrical equipment, Xiaomi has launched into electric automobiles with the Xiaomi “SU7” sedan, orders for which opened at the end of last month. According to Bloomberg this Tuesday, the group recorded nearly 90,000 orders in 24 hours. A performance to the extent that Goldman Sachs was counting on 100,000 units but for the whole of 2024, according to the American press agency.
This success risks fueling the price war in China, a market where Tesla is already suffering. “Automakers, including XPeng Inc. and BYD Co., could follow suit by adjusting their prices to stay in the race, according to Citigroup analysts,” cited by Bloomberg.
Julien Marion – ©2024 BFM Bourse
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