Tesla fails to grow sales in 2024 for the first time in more than a decade

[Simone Del Rosario]

Tesla has been on a tear to close out 2024 but its annual sales are telling a different story. 

Tesla deliveries on the year declined for the first time since 2011, according to data the company released Thursday. 

Tesla delivered about 1.79 million cars in 2024, down from about 1.81 million in 2023. That’s about a 1% drop in sales year over year for 2024, compared to a 38% growth in sales the year before. 

That said, the car company still set a record in Q4 2024, so things could be on the up and up. Tesla delivered a record 495,570 vehicles the final three months of the year, while producing a record 459,445. Still, that fell short of expectations, causing the company to miss its chance at a slight sales growth for the year. 

Tesla shares slid more than 6% by midday Thursday on the news. 

Tesla is worth more than a trillion dollars to start 2025 and its stock price surged about 63% in 2024, most of that coming since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. Tesla became part of the Trump trade with CEO Elon Musk’s close ties to the incoming administration. 

Musk said in October he expects the company to see 20% to 30% growth in 2025, even as the EV market as a whole struggles with a slowdown. 

As Trump’s team looks to end federal EV tax credits, Musk has said, do it! It will only help Tesla. Legacy automakers are still selling EVs at a loss while Tesla has a years-long head start in the space. Getting rid of subsidies would force automakers already selling at a loss to drop EV prices even more to stay competitive. 

After Trump’s victory, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation urged him to keep the $7,500 credit in place. The trade group, which represents major automakers excluding Tesla, says they are up against unfair competition from heavily subsidized EVs from China. 

China’s BYD is on Tesla’s bumper, racing to grab the global EV sales crown. The company outsold Tesla’s record-breaking Q4 numbers by 100,000, and came just shy of Tesla’s annual sales figures. 

BYD isn’t just threatening U.S. automakers or the EV space. It’s accelerating in the race for total global autogroup sales. Japan’s Toyota has the runaway lead, but BYD is pulling ahead of Japan’s Honda and Nissan. In December, those two announced a proposed merger by 2026 to better compete with China. Together, they would be the world’s third-largest autogroup. For SAN, I’m Simone Del Rosario.