DETROIT (AP) — Tesla posted its first annual sales drop in more than a dozen years Thursday, undercutting a stock that has soared since Donald Trump’s victory on optimism Elon Musk’s close relationship to the president-elect will help the company.
Tesla’s global vehicle sales rose 2.3% in the final quarter of 2024 thanks to 0% financing, free charging and low-priced leases. But that was not enough for billionaire Musk's most valuable holding to overcome last year's sluggish start.
The Austin, Texas, company sold 495,570 vehicles from October through December, boosting deliveries to 1.79 million for the full year. That was 1.1% below 2023 sales of 1.81 million as overall demand for electric vehicles in the U.S. and elsewhere slowed.
The year-over-year global sales drop is Tesla’s first since 2011, according to figures from analytics firm Global Data. The company sold 1,306 vehicles in 2010, but that dropped slightly to 1,129 the following year.
The fourth-quarter boost came with a cost. Analysts polled by FactSet expected Tesla’s average sales price to fall to just over $41,000 in the quarter, the lowest in at least four years.
That doesn’t bode well for Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings report on Jan. 29 and Tesla's stock fell 6.1% on Thursday.
Musk donated more than $250 million to Trump’s campaign and is a regular guest at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Tesla investors have pushed the stock up more than 50% since the election on hopes the new administration will streamline electric vehicle regulations and address other Musk policy priorities.
In 2022, Tesla predicted that its sales would grow 50% most years, but the prediction ran into an aging model lineup and increased competition in China, Europe and the U.S. In the U.S., analysts say most early adopters of technology already own electric vehicles, and more mainstream buyers have concerns about range, price and the ability to find charging stations on longer trips.
The fourth-quarter deliveries fell thousands short of Wall Street expectations. Analysts polled by data provider FactSet expected sales of 498,000 vehicles.
Falling sales early in the year led to once-unheard of discounts for the automaker, cutting into its industry-leading profit margins.
Competition from legacy and startup automakers is also growing as they try to nibble away at the company’s market share.
Daniel Ives, a financial analyst at Wedbush, said he thinks the stock should be valued more on its promise of creating fully self-driving, autonomous vehicles and its AI technology and is still worth buying despite the sales drop.
“We have never viewed Tesla simply as a car company ... instead we have always viewed Musk and Tesla as a leading disruptive technology global player,” wrote Ives. “And the first part of this grand strategic vision has taken shape.”
The fourth-quarter sales, while a record for Tesla, show that the company’s aging model lineup is reaching saturation in the entry-level luxury vehicle market, said Morningstar Analyst Seth Goldstein.
Aside from the Cybertruck, which has had limited appeal, Tesla’s newest consumer model is the Y small SUV which first went on sale in 2020.
To meet Tesla management’s guidance of 20% to 30% annual sales growth this year, the company will need to come out with a vehicle priced in the mid $30,000s to appeal to more mainstream buyers who might be considering gas, electric or hybrid vehicles, Goldstein said.
Tesla has floated the possibility of a new version of the Model Y that would cost in the mid $30,000s that may be smaller inside than the current Y with fewer features, Goldstein said.
“At that point you’re comparable to some Hondas and Fords and GMs,” Goldstein said. “It takes you out of the luxury market to the more affordable vehicle market.”
Jeff Schuster, vice president of automotive research Global Data, said Tesla faces intense competition worldwide from EV makers in China, the U.S. and elsewhere, many of which are selling EVs to more mainstream buyers. “If they want to continue to see the growth they had, they need to expand to other sizes and price points,” he said.
Musk’s support of Trump for U.S. president also could be turning off some buyers who may be more environmentally conscious and lean toward Democrats, Schuster said. A broader, less costly lineup would appeal to a larger group of buyers, he said. “I suppose the choices that he’s made on the political front don’t line up with a good portion of his buyers’ profile,” Schuster said.
Industry experts say that Tesla used to be the only automaker with credible electric vehicles, but now others such as China’s BYD now have more to offer.
At present, automakers have 75 electric vehicle models for sale in the U.S. Through the first nine months of last year, electric vehicle sales slowed in the U.S., but they are still growing.
Through September, new EV sales rose 7.2% to about 936,000 in the U.S., according to Motorintelligence.com. That’s slower growth than the 47% increase in 2023. But EV sales this year still are likely to surpass last year’s record of 1.19 million. Most other automakers will report full-year sales on Friday.
Nearly all of Tesla’s sales last quarter came from the smaller and less-expensive Models 3 and Y, with the company selling only 23,640 of its more expensive models that include X and S, as well as the new Cybertruck.
Tesla's global electric vehicle sales edged out Chinese rival BYD, which announced Thursday that its sales soared 41% last year including 1.77 million EVs. The company is vying with Tesla for the world’s top selling EV maker.
Fourth-quarter production of 459,445 vehicles was below total deliveries for the quarter, and full year production of 1.77 million was less than the year’s sales.
Condon reported from New York City.
FILE - A Tesla level three Electric vehicle charger is visible, Feb. 2, 2024, in Kennesaw, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
FILE - The logo of Tesla car is pictured at the Paris Auto Show, in Paris, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
ATLANTA (AP) — Six days of funeral observances for former President Jimmy Carter begin Saturday in Georgia, where he died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.
The first events reflect Carter’s climb up the political ladder, from the tiny town of Plains, Georgia, to decades on the global stage as a humanitarian and advocate for democracy.
Here is what to know about the initial ceremonies and what happens next:
The proceedings, streamed on apnews.com and the Associated Press YouTube channel, are scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m. EST Saturday with the Carter family arriving at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus.
Former Secret Service agents who protected Carter will serve as pallbearers, walking alongside the hearse as it exits the campus on its way to Plains.
James Earl Carter Jr. lived more than 80 of his 100 years in and around the town, which still has fewer than 700 people, not much more than when he was born on Oct. 1, 1924. Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton also grew up in rural settings, but Carter stands out for returning and remaining in his birthplace for his long post-presidency.
The motorcade will move through downtown Plains, which spans just a few blocks, passing near the girlhood home of first lady Rosalynn Smith Carter, who died in November 2023 at the age of 96, and near where the couple operated the family peanut warehouses. The route also includes the old train depot that served as Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign headquarters and the gas station once run by Carter's younger brother Billy.
The motorcade will then pass by the Methodist church where the Carters married in 1946, and the home where they lived and died. The former president will be buried there alongside Rosalynn.
The Carters built the one-story house, now surrounded by Secret Service fencing, before his first state Senate campaign in 1962 and lived out their lives there with the exception of four years in the Governor's Mansion and four more in the White House.
The military-run schedule calls for a 10:50 a.m. stop in front of Carter's family farm and boyhood home in Archery, outside Plains, after passing the cemetery where the former president's parents, James Earl Carter Sr. and Lillian Carter, are buried.
The farm now is part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park. The National Park Service will ring the old farm bell 39 times to honor the 39th president.
Carter was the first president born in a hospital. But the home had no electricity or running water when he was born, and he worked his father's land during the Great Depression. Still, the Carters had relative privilege and status. Earl employed Black tenant farming families. The elder Carter also owned a store in Plains and was a local civic and political leader. Lillian was a nurse and she delivered Rosalynn. The property still includes a tennis court Earl had built for the family.
It was Earl's death in 1953 that set Jimmy on course toward the Oval Office. The younger Carters had left Plains after he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. But Jimmy abandoned a promising career as a submarine officer and early participant in the Pentagon's nuclear program to take over the family's peanut business after his father's death. Within a decade, he was elected to the Georgia state Senate.
From Archery, the motorcade will head north to Atlanta and will stop at 3 p.m. outside at the Georgia Capitol, where he served as a state senator from 1963 to 1967 and governor from 1971 to 1975. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens will lead a moment of silence. While former governors are honored with state-run funerals, presidents — even if they served as governors — are memorialized with national rites run by the federal government.
The motorcade then is scheduled to arrive at the Carter Presidential Center at 3:45 p.m., with a private service at 4 p.m. The campus includes Carter’s presidential library and The Carter Center, established by the former president and first lady in 1982.
From 7 p.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Monday, Carter will lie in repose for the public to pay respects around the clock.
The ceremony is expected to include some of The Carter Center's global staff of 3,000, whose work concentrating on international diplomacy and mediation, election monitoring and fighting disease in the developing world continues to set a standard for what former presidents can accomplish.
Jimmy Carter, who delivered its annual reports until 2019, won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize in part for this post-presidential work. His grandson Jason Carter now chairs the board.
Carter's remains will travel next to Washington, where he will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda until his funeral at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral. All the living presidents have been invited, and Joe Biden, a Carter ally, will deliver a eulogy.
The Carter family then will return to bury its patriarch in Plains after a private hometown funeral at 3:45 p.m. at Maranatha Baptist Church, where Carter, a devout evangelical, taught Sunday School for decades.
Carter will be buried afterward in a private graveside service, in a plot visible from the front porch of his home.
A memorial wreath of cotton bolls is seen at the entrance to the Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Archery, Ga. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
A woman looks at items left in tribute to former President Jimmy Carter at the entrance to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Atlanta. Carter died Sunday at he age of 100. (AP Photo/John Bazemore )
A jar of peanuts is among the items left in tribute to former President Jimmy Carter at the entrance to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Atlanta. Carter died Sunday at he age of 100. (AP Photo/John Bazemore )
A woman leaves flowers in tribute to former President Jimmy Carter at the entrance to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Atlanta. Carter died Sunday at he age of 100. (AP Photo/John Bazemore )
A Habitat for Humanity hard hat is among the items left in tribute to former President Jimmy Carter at the entrance to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Atlanta. Carter died Sunday at he age of 100. (AP Photo/John Bazemore )
Tom Chaffin, of Atlanta, leaves flowers at the entrance to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Atlanta. Carter died Sunday at he age of 100. (AP Photo/John Bazemore )
