Tesla spent more than a year touting its “more affordable” cars, which finally arrived last October, with stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3 starting at $39,990 and $36,990, respectively. But first-quarter numbers show that new cars don’t have a big impact on Tesla’s overall sales.
Tesla on Thursday said it delivered 358,023 EVs worldwide in the first three months of this year, lower than analysts expected to deliver about 368,000. The company also produced far more units than it sold, with final production totaling 408,386 units.
That means Tesla delivered only about 6% more cars in the first quarter of this year than in the first quarter of 2025, the company’s worst year in years. The Q1 2025 numbers are also affected by the company shutting down production lines for several weeks to switch out some equipment, meaning the Q1 2026 numbers are unlikely to be a material improvement.
The sales numbers are surprising for a company that previously promised to increase EV sales by 50% every year. And the poor first-quarter results mean Tesla faces the risk of its overall sales declining for the third consecutive year as profits also decline.
Tesla isn’t the only company struggling to grow EV sales, especially in the United States. Legacy automakers have backed away from, and in some cases canceled entirely, their once grand plans and ambitions for new EVs. Newcomers are also struggling. Rivian announced Thursday morning that it shipped just over 10,000 vehicles in the first quarter, about the same number the company reports each quarter.
Rivian has a new model on standby, as it will soon start shipping its cheaper R2 SUV, which should boost sales. The company is hopeful that the R2 will be a huge success from the start, despite the fact that the cheapest version of the R2 won’t arrive until late 2027.
Tesla doesn’t have a new mass-market car out of the box. The company was working on a much lower-cost EV, expected to cost around $25,000. But CEO Elon Musk scrapped the project in favor of going all-in on “CyberCab.” Instead of that $25,000 car, Musk had Tesla develop the bare-bones Model Y and Model 3.
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The only true new model Tesla has released in the past few years is the Cybertruck. That’s more than most other all-electric trucks sell, but it was a total failure in the face of Tesla’s — and Musk’s — expectations for a steel-clad EV. Tesla sold just 16,130 “other models” in the first quarter of this year, including the Cybertruck and the now-retired Model S and Model X.
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