Tesla reports 1.1% sales drop for 2024

Tesla's global annual sales fell for the first time in at least 9 years, with a 2.3 percent increase in the final quarter not enough to overcome a sluggish start to 2024 despite offers of 0 percent financing, free charging and low-priced leases, reported The Associated Press (AP) on Thursday, reported Xinhua.

"The Austin, Texas, company delivered 495,570 vehicles from October through December, boosting deliveries to 1.79 million for the full year. But that was 1.1 percent below 2023 sales of 1.81 million as overall demand for electric vehicles in the United States and elsewhere slowed," noted the report.

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 U.S. dollars in the quarter, the lowest in at least four years.

"That doesn't bode well for Tesla's fourth-quarter earnings, which the company said it would announce on Jan. 29," said the report. In 2022, Tesla predicted that its sales would grow 50 percent most years, but the prediction ran into an aging model lineup and increased competition in China, Europe and the United States.

In the United States, analysts say most early adopters of technology already have electric vehicles, and more mainstream buyers have concerns about range, price and the ability to find charging stations on longer trips, it added.