Tesla announced on Wednesday that its electric vehicle sales in the first quarter plummeted to the lowest level in nearly three years, indicating that it will struggle to keep pace with the Chinese giant BYD.
In the period from January to March, the company delivered 336,681 electric vehicles to customers, a decrease of 13 percent compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary data.
This result is the worst since the second quarter of 2022 when they sold just over 250,000.
In the first three months of this year, they produced 362,615 vehicles, which is 6.3 percent less than at the beginning of 2024.
The American company last year narrowly surpassed the Chinese giant BYD with 1.79 million electric vehicles sold. However, in terms of revenue, they lagged behind BYD by approximately $100 million.
BYD is expected to surpass Tesla in sales for the first time this year and take the lead in the global rankings, with a 15.7 percent share of the global electric vehicle market compared to Tesla’s 15.3 percent, according to market research firm Counterpoint Research.
With reduced investments in new models and a price war with cheap domestic competition in China, the American company is also facing negative public reactions to owner Elon Musk’s involvement in the cabinet of U.S. President Donald Trump, along with a wave of layoffs affecting thousands of public sector workers and support for far-right parties in Europe.
In such conditions, Tesla’s vehicle sales in EU markets nearly halved in the first two months of this year, dropping to just 19,046 cars, according to the manufacturers’ association ACEA. Overall electric vehicle sales, however, surged by 25 percent, totaling 255,000, with a market share of 15.2 percent.
