Tesla deliveries to hit record, but fall short of Musk's aspirations
By Akash Sriram and Hyunjoo Jin
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is expected to post another record quarter for electric vehicle (EV) deliveries, likely shy of an ambitious 2 million annual internal target that CEO Elon Musk touted at the beginning of the year.
Faced with slowing sales, Tesla leveraged its industry-leading margins and slashed prices of its four car models globally in 2023, with a focus on China, where the company has lost market share to locals including BYD (SZ:002594).
The price war and slowing EV demand, however, have prompted automakers including Ford Motor (NYSE:F) to pull back on their electrification plans, leaving Tesla as the undisputed leader in the United States and helping its stock more than double this year.
«The fourth quarter is typically the strongest of the year in terms of deliveries for Tesla, we're expecting that to be the case again this year,» said Garrett Nelson, senior analyst at CFRA Research.
Tesla likely delivered 1.82 million vehicles globally in 2023, up 37% from 2022, with about 473,000 units in the fourth quarter, according to 14 analysts polled by LSEG.
In January, Musk said that Tesla has the potential to achieve 2 million deliveries this year, if there was no «freaking force majeure». But as recently as October, he warned that higher borrowing costs were pressuring demand.
The company, which made a year-end sales push by increasing discounts on its key models, has said it aims to achieve a 50% average annual growth rate over multiple years.
Going into 2024, the EV market leader will have to contend with the loss of federal tax credits for some of its cars in the United States as well as in Germany, where the government is prematurely ending its EV subsidy
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