West News Wire: Due to a gloomy economic outlook and growing rivalry, Tesla Inc. missed expectations for first-quarter deliveries on Sunday. This was despite the electric automaker’s best efforts to boost demand with price reductions.
Refinitiv data shows that Tesla shipped 422,875 vehicles versus analyst expectations of 430,008 vehicles.
Investors have been keeping an eye on CEO Elon Musk’s bet that lowering costs would increase sales, offsetting the loss from shrinking margins.
Tesla deliveries were 36% higher than they were a year ago and were up 4% from the prior quarter.
Tesla’s head of investor relations, Martin Viecha, tweeted, “Sequential growth continues even in the first quarter.”
The automaker manufactured 440,808 vehicles in the first three months of this year, which is more than it shipped.
Tesla delivered 6% more of its mainstay Model 3/Model Y vehicles than the previous quarter. But the number of deliveries for its higher-priced Model X/Model S vehicles slumped by 38%.
In January, Tesla slashed prices globally by as much as 20%, unleashing a price war after missing Wall Street delivery estimates for 2022.
Musk warned the prospect of recession and higher interest rates meant the carmaker could lower prices to sustain growth at the expense of profit. In January, Musk said the price cuts had stoked demand.
Shares have soared more than 68% this year on hopes that Tesla would win the price war it started, although the stock remains more than 50% below its November 2021 peak.
