The sales of the electric car maker plummets as the Musk backlash grows

Tesla’s Shares of Wall Street and Other Business: The First Three Months Before Wall Street Spikes, Inclusive Taxicabs, and a Test of the Governor’s 2020 Campaign

The company said it produced a total of 362,615 vehicles in the first three months of the year, including 345,454 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and 17,161 “other vehicles,” which includes the Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck. Tesla also said it delivered a total of 336,681 vehicles, including 323,800 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and 12,881 other vehicles — a 12.9 percent decline compared to Q1 2024. Delivery are a proxy for sales for direct-to-consumer companies.

The results were released before the opening bell on Wall Street and sent the battered shares of the company down even more in early trading. Before noon, however, the share price had rallied.

“It could be called a disaster, I might call it that,” says Daniel Ives. Wall Street was “anticipating softness, but this was, I think, one of the worst delivery quarters relative to the original expectations in the last few years,” he says.

It’s a sentiment shared by other analysts. The catalyst is Musk’s increased political visibility, which has been alienating buyers, said Gene Munster on X in February.

Musk, who backed Trump in the 2024 election and donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to his campaign, has become a key figure in the new administration’s push to reduce government spending. As the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Musk is the public face of often unpopular cuts, which include the elimination of entire agencies. Massive protests at the stores have been triggered by his moves, and there have been acts of vandalism against the company’s storefronts and vehicles.

A recent $20 million investment by Musk into a Wisconsin Supreme Court race was unsuccessful in trying to tip the court in the Republicans’ favor. Speaking at a rally in the state ahead of Tuesday’s poll, Musk acknowledged that working for the White House was “a very expensive job” and that “my Tesla stock and the stock of everyone who holds Tesla has gone roughly in half.” The court will keep leaning in Democrats’ direction after Liberal judge Susan Crawford won the race.

“I continue to believe he’s the CEO of Tesla and I think he will be for at least another 5 to 10 years,” says Ives. “[But] he’s going to have to take a step back from DOGE and start to actually become more involved [at Tesla].”

I have 10 years of experience as a transportation editor, who covers public transportation, aviation and electric vehicles. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.

Tesla, Trump, and the Tesla Takedown – An Autonomous Test of Tesla’s Promises about Self-Driving Vehicles

While Tesla faces new hurdles, other automakers are reporting brisk sales of their own EVs. GeneralMotors reported almost 32,000 EV sold in the first quarter, doubling its figure year over year.

Musk has caused a nationwide protest movementcalledTesla Takedown aimed at boycotting the company and driving down its stock price. It appears to have been successful in persuading many progressive owners to sell their vehicles despite steep drops in used car values.

There were a number of violent attacks on the stores and cars ofTesla around the world. A showroom in Rome was destroyed in a fire. President Donald Trump has stated that people found defacing vehicles will be charged with domestic terrorism.

Musk thinks that artificial intelligence,robots, and self-driving cars will propel his company to new financial heights. The company will have a pilot in Austin, Texas, in June. But his past promises about autonomous driving have failed to come true. And experts have questioned Tesla’s approach to the technology, pointing to dozens of fatal crashes that have occurred involving the company’s partially automated features.