Tesla had a rough Thursday. The company’s stock price fell more than 4% after it released its first-quarter delivery report. While the numbers grew slightly compared to last year, they still fell short of what Wall Street expected. Tesla delivered about 358,000 cars, missing the analysts’ mark by roughly 12,000 vehicles.
Elon Musk is clearly steering the ship in a new direction. This week, he officially called it the “end of an era” for the flagship Model S and Model X. Tesla stopped making these expensive older models to clear space at its Fremont factory. Now, those assembly lines will build “Optimus” humanoid robots instead.
Right now, the company depends almost entirely on the cheaper Model 3 and Model Y, which make up 97% of its sales. The futuristic Cybertruck hasn’t really taken off with the general public yet. Musk is also betting big on a driverless “Cybercab.” Since neither the cab nor the robots are for sale yet, the company’s bank account still relies on selling regular cars.
Tesla’s energy side also took a step back. It deployed 8.8 gigawatt hours of battery storage this quarter, a big drop from the record 14.2 gigawatt hours it hit at the end of last year. These batteries help back up homes and data centers, but the momentum seems to be slowing down for now.
There are several reasons why people aren’t buying new Teslas like they used to. The $7,500 federal tax credit vanished in September, making the cars much more expensive. Many buyers are also turning away because of Musk’s controversial politics and his vocal support for Donald Trump.
Surprisingly, the war in the Middle East might actually help Tesla in a weird way. As the conflict with Iran sends gas prices through the roof, more people are hunting for used electric cars to save money. However, this hasn’t been enough to stop Tesla’s stock from dropping nearly 20% since the start of the year.
Investors are now looking toward the April 22 earnings call. They want to see how much profit Tesla is actually making and how badly the war is messing up its supply chains. For a company that used to be the king of the road, the path ahead looks pretty bumpy.
