Dhe world’s largest electric car maker Tesla missed analysts’ expectations in the fourth quarter despite a delivery record. According to its own statements on Monday, the US company handed over 405,278 cars to its customers in the reporting period. According to Refinitiv data, however, experts had expected an average of 431,117 vehicles.
Tesla was slowed down by ongoing logistics problems and falling demand for vehicles in the wake of rising interest rates and fears of a recession. Tesla also delivered around 34,000 fewer vehicles than it built: Total production in the reporting period was 439,701 vehicles.
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said the numbers weren’t as dire as Wall Street’s direst predictions. In addition, a lot of bad news has already been priced into the share price. “But a miss is a miss.” In the US, the stock exchanges were closed on Monday because of the New Year’s holiday. Tesla shares lost 65 percent last year, the biggest loss since going public in 2010. The shares were among the most lucrative stocks for short sellers.
—
— (–)
For detailed view
Experts see the e-car pioneer confronted with several problems. These include the weakness of the world’s largest car market in China, competition from traditional companies such as Ford and General Motors and startups such as Rivian Automotive and the Lucid Group.
Reuters news agency recently reported that Tesla is scaling back production at its Shanghai plant this month. Some investors are speculating that CEO Elon Musk may be distracted by his involvement with Twitter. Musk did not initially comment on the delivery figures.
