Tesla's profit fell 55%, adding to concerns about its strategy

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Tesla reported Tuesday that it made significantly less money in the first three months of the year because of its tepid car sales, reinforcing concern among investors that the company led by Elon Musk is losing ground in the market for electric vehicles.
Profit fell 55%, to $1.1 billion, from the first quarter of 2023, the company said. And revenue fell 9%, to $21.3 billion.

A slump in earnings was seen as inevitable after Tesla said this month that sales in the first quarter fell 8.5% from a year earlier and after the company announced plans to lay off more than 10% of its employees worldwide, or about 14,000 people. The job cuts were interpreted as a sign that Tesla was struggling to bring costs in line with sinking revenue.

In the first quarter of 2023, Tesla made $2.5 billion and had one of the best profit margins in the industry, the company said a year ago. But it has been forced to cut prices, lowering the amount it makes on each car it sells. For a while, that strategy seemed to help bolster the company's sales, but Tesla now appears to be struggling to attract buyers even with lower prices.

Tesla's operating profit margin last quarter was 5.5%, half as much as a year earlier and in line with how much other automakers tended to earn.

Tesla investors are increasingly worried that its falling sales and profit are a symptom of larger problems, possibly pointing to the company's inability to effectively respond to increased competition from