Jan. 2 (UPI) — Tesla stock took a dive in morning trading Thursday after the company announced lower-than-expected figures for deliveries and fourth-quarter production.
Tesla, which is feeling strong competition for the first time from South Korea’s Hyundai and China’s BYD in the electric vehicle market, announced fourth-quarter deliveries of 495,570 vehicles and total fourth-quarter production of 459,445.
Wall Street analysts had predicted Tesla’s fourth-quarter deliveries would reach 504,770 while independent Tesla researcher Troy Teslike had predicted 501,000 deliveries, according to CNBC.
That was enough to send Tesla shares falling by 7% on Thursday morning.
Tesla said its fourth-quarter deliveries and deployment of 11.0 GWh of energy storage products were both at all-time highs for Tesla.
“Thank you to all of our customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and supporters who helped us achieve these results,” Tesla said in a statement.
The company said its total 2024 deliveries were 1,789,226 while total annual production was 1,773,443.
Despite missing the forecast, the fourth quarter production and year-end figures proved to be an improvement from the first quarter when Tesla struggled with falling sales despite price cuts, ending its stock nosediving 27%.
Musk and others are looking for friendly regulatory policies from the White House after the world’s richest man tied his future to President-elect Donald Trump, investing hundreds of millions into his campaign.