Tesla has reported its production and delivery figures for the first quarter of 2023, and for the first time in a long time, the figures are down quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) and year-over-year (YoY).
Tesla has been riding a wave of production and delivery growth, seeing these metrics post near 50% compound growth in recent quarters and years. This growth was being driven by the Model 3 and Model Y, which launched in 2017 and 2020 respectively, with the Model Y quickly becoming the world’s best selling car in 2023.
With this rapid growth, Tesla warned that its 2024 figures were not going to continue on the same path. On the Q4 2023 earnings call executives cautioned that the company was between two major growth waves, with the next wave not expected to begin until the launch of the next generation Tesla.
With that launch still at least 12 to 18 months away, Tesla did not provide a specific guidance for 2024, except to say it will see a relative slowdown in growth compared to 2023, which saw deliveries increase nearly 40% to 1.81 million.
To help avoid a dip and drive sales in the first quarter, Tesla implemented a number of incentives, like the return of Full Self-Driving (FSD) Capability transfers, free Supercharging credits, temporary discounts, and more.
Despite those efforts, Tesla reported deliveries of 386,810 in Q1 2024. This is down 20.16% from the 484,507 vehicles delivered in Q4 2023, and also down 8.52% from the 422,875 delivered in the first quarter of 2023.
The vast majority were of the Model 3/Y (369,783). We don’t know the exact number of Cybertruck deliveries as they were lumped in under the “Other Models” category, which includes the Model S/X, which reported 17,027 deliveries.
Production in Q1 2024 also dropped, with a total of 433,371 vehicles produced at the company’s four vehicle factories. This was down 12.44% from the 494,989 vehicles that were built in Q4 2023, and also down 1.68% from the 440,808 vehicles produced during the same time period last year.
The lower production figures were not unexpected as Tesla faced two shutdowns at Giga Berlin, as well as attempting to ramp production of the new Model 3 at the Fremont factory.
Here is what Tesla had to say on their first quarter production and delivery figures.
Decline in volumes was partially due to the early phase of the production ramp of the updated Model 3 at our Fremont factory and factory shutdowns resulting from shipping diversions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at Gigafactory Berlin.
Tesla
Tesla will report its Q1 2024 financials on Tuesday, April 2023.
