There’s more to Tesla’s bad quarter than Elon Musk’s politics: Analyst

[Simone Del Rosario]

Tesla announced the number of cars it delivered so far this year, and it’s even worse than Wall Street expected.

Tesla delivered shy of 337,000 vehicles in the first quarter, a 13% decline from the same quarter a year ago. Analysts had been lowering their forecasts ahead of Wednesday’s reveal, but even then, projected a rosier picture.

It’s Tesla’s worst quarter for deliveries since early 2022.

It’s also the first quarter since CEO Elon Musk became a frontman for the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The political position is leading to a backlash. People have protested Tesla, vandalized cars and registration numbers are diving in liberal states where Tesla once reigned supreme.

In a YouGov/Yahoo News poll taken at the end of March, two-thirds of respondents said they would not consider buying or leasing a Tesla. More than a third said Musk was at least part of the reason.

But our guest says that’s just a fraction of what’s weighing down Tesla, and for all the headwinds out there, there are some tailwinds too.

[Lauren Fix]

Instantly you think it’s it’s all the people out there protesting. That’s a small piece of the pie. What ended up happening on the backside of that, that was this past weekend. People came in on Monday and started buying the cars because it was free advertising.

Hi, I’m Lauren Fix. I’m with car coach reports. I’m the founder. I’m an automotive analyst with over 40 years of experience, and I’ve worked in every aspect of the auto industry.

People are looking at the reality of it all is, do electric cars make sense? Sure, absolutely, for a lot of people. But in a country like China, people tend to purchase their own brands, which is like BYD SAIC. There’s a whole bunch of them. They’re actually, they’re reconsolidating the Chinese market right now, but they’re very strong BYD being the number one leader in the world, and they’re coming out with really creative product. They’ve an amazing leader there. They’ve got a very fast charging that’s substantially faster than what Tesla offers. So in the European level, people are looking at the Chinese cars because they’ve literally infiltrated every country but the US, and they haven’t reached North America. There’s an actual block in them coming here. But looking at the US side alone, you’re looking at some fantastic product being put out by Monday and Kia. Genesis Ford’s got the mach E. General Motors has got a lot of new luxury vehicles. So in the competition increases, obviously your sales are going to drop down.

[Simone Del Rosario]

And I just want to get this straight, because people are going to be hearing a lot today about how the sentiment around Elon Musk is what’s taking these quarterly deliveries, and again, they’re worse than what was expected, and analysts were already expecting a really bad quarter. So all of that aside, you’re saying this is being overblown.

[Lauren Fix]

I think it is overblown. I think as far as the mainstream media, they’re kind of looking for a story to hang their hat on. I think when you look at Tesla as a whole, he’s more than just a car company. He’s an electronics company. He’s a tech company. We’ve got robots coming. A lot of people have approved the robo taxi. You know, he’s, he owns a lot of companies, and he’s got his fingers in almost every aspect of AI and space. And so we’re, he may not do so well on the Tesla brand when he starts bringing in these robots that people, okay, who would like to have a robot clean your house so you don’t have to. I’ll take that, I’ll take that, but that’s the kind of thing that people are going to start looking at. And he’s already moved forward. When is it going to come out? I don’t know, but he he typically, Elon Musk, in the whole typically, will watch the market drop off, come up with some amazing statement of what he’s going to do, and the market turns around. So we may not see it right away. It might be because of his relationship with Doge. I think there’s a lot of factors in play. As far as tariffs, he’s not going to be impacted as much as other brands. And we don’t know all the details on that until President Trump tells us. And they’re constantly in play. They are running this right up to the deadline, and then we’ll see what happens.

[Simone Del Rosario]

Yeah, absolutely. And I did want to talk about that Tesla is very. Well positioned when it comes to this tariffs, and that’s what happens when you are fully assembled in the United States. Of course, Elon Musk says that they will be somewhat impacted. You know, he doesn’t want to make it come across like he’s not getting hit at all. On the Tesla side, he is. He’s getting hit a little bit. That’s a little bit. But definitely, when you’re when you’re talking about the full assembly of cars happening in the United States, which is something the President would like to see a lot more automakers doing. Tesla is going to be coming out ahead in comparison to other automakers. Any other bullish moves happening for Tesla right now on on a day when, actually, you know, we’re going to be seeing a lot of negative headlines about them. For sure, I’m sure

[Lauren Fix]

it’s very interesting to watch, because while you see all the mainstream media talk about these protesters, and you think, oh, no, one’s going to buy. It’s sort of the reverse of Bud Light, where people just stop buying, I think it’s the reverse. You’ve got a lot of people supporting his brand. A lot of people don’t like going to the dealers. So it’s interesting. They said they had top deliveries yesterday, which was April 1, which wouldn’t be in the first quarter. So I’m kind of curious if the second quarter is going to look like will this impact? I don’t know. President Trump did drop a hint yesterday, and we don’t know if this is true, because I know there’s always gameplay going on that Elon Musk might leave Doge and go back to running his multiple businesses because x merged with with AI. So I think it’s going to be very interesting to watch as a whole. I cannot give stock advice personally. I bought some Tesla stock when it was down last week, it’s still kind of floating around the mid 250s and I think that’s one of the things. You have to make your own decisions and what works best for you. And of course, talk to a financial advisor, but I play a little bit, you know, my own buying and selling, and it’s interesting to watch. I think you have to buy what you like, buy what you know has the future. And again, that’s a personal choice. But as far as being bullish, I don’t think Tesla’s going anywhere. I really don’t. I think as the new product rolls out, people love him. He still has fans. Some people, temporarily or permanently, might not like him, but he still isn’t going anywhere. Yeah,

[Simone Del Rosario]

yeah, you mentioned the stock and we’re talking, you know, first thing in the morning. Year to date, the Tesla stock is down about 31% took a little bit of a hit this morning, but is already climbing back up from correcting on the news of the deliveries. But as far as the last six months is concerned, they’re still up about 5% but that 31% you know, the investors aren’t going to be too happy about that, but you mentioned something, which is definitely in regards to the sentiment some people saying they’re never going to buy a Tesla again. We’ve got some statistics there, you know, and polling data that shows that people are turning off of the brand because of Elon Musk. I was curious, though. I saw column in the Seattle Times about how registrations there in Washington State are down significantly. And I’m thinking, yes, maybe there. But what about in Texas? Are we going to be seeing other areas that are buying more Teslas because they are more mobilized and excited about the brand, even though maybe its core consumer base is changing now? Well, I

[Lauren Fix]

think the core consumer base is definitely changing. There’s not a doubt about that. But as far as what he offers, he’s got a new update on two of the different models. They don’t look like they had for the last 10 years. I think you’re gonna see people still having some demand for that. There’s a lot of great product out there. I think that’s what people don’t realize, is that, you know, look at all the other brands and what they’re putting out. There’s some pretty cool looking product if you want an electric car, but no longer having the mandate, I think is a big thing. And it’s important to remember that Tesla still owns 60% of the US or North American market. So whether Canada has a little hissy fit and they go, Well, you can’t use their charging stations here, you’re not hurting him. You’re hurting people that are Canadians that already purchased these cars that we’ll be able to charge. I mean, it doesn’t make sense, but we’ll see this is all about to change, because there’s a lot of moving pieces, and we won’t know that until President Trump makes his announcement at four o’clock today, and I think that’s when you’re going to see some major changes, because every country is now saying, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe we should talk some more and, and this is part of what, what they’re working on that I think I’ll be watching for sure.

[Simone Del Rosario]

Yeah, thank you so much. Lauren, fix the car coach. Always appreciate your thoughts.