To give EV sales a boost, Tesla offered 2.5 per cent financing to qualified buyers, which was much below the market interest rate
The automaker Tesla's global sales of cars and trucks recovered as its third quarterly sales grew by 6.4 per cent, reported NYT on Wednesday. It was company’s first quarterly increase this year. Its sales fell short of the analysts' expectations at Wall Street amid stiff competition in China and Europe.
On the same day, its share price fell by 3.5 per cent.
Its sales were almost 4,63,000 between July and September this year increasing from 4,35,000 a year ago, indicating that the demand for electric vehicles (EV) is recovering as the rates fall. To give EV sales a boost, Tesla offered 2.5 per cent financing to qualified buyers, which was much below the market interest rate.
In the quarter ending March 2024, it reported a sharp decline in profits to $1.13bn and its revenue fell for the first time since 2020 by 55 per cent from $2.51bn a year earlier. Earlier this year, Tesla also downsized its workforce by 14 per cent.
Aging Models
Tesla EV sales were hit as more of its competitors like Hyundai, General Motors, Ford Motors and BMW are coming up with more battery-powered models. General Motors and even Hyundai-Kia offer multiple choices with new designs and that too in lower prices as compared with Tesla. Tesla, on the other hand, still relies on two of its aging models—the Model Y sport utility vehicle and Model 3 sedan—for most of its sales.
Beating Tesla, which has lost much of its market share to domestic companies in Europe, BMW led the battery electric vehicle market in the country for the first time, according to a report by JATO Dynamics as quoted in a Reuters report.
Musk’s Future Plans for Tesla
Tesla introduced new incentives such as offers on insurance and zero-interest financing, especially in China. The country accounts for a third of its sales.
Tesla’s chief executive Elon Musk is betting the company’s future on autonomous driving as the company is expected to launch self-driving taxi on October 10 in Los Angeles.
It is also expected to unveil a cheaper passenger car on the same day in an attempt to expand its consumer base.
Tesla’s plans also include designing four new versions of its in-house batteries to power its Cybertruck, upcoming robotaxi and other electric vehicles as reported by The Information.
In the meantime, the chief information officer of the company Nagesh Saldi is resigning, as reported by Bloomberg. He had been the part of Tesla since 2018 and had been involved in the build-out of Tesla’s new data centers in Texas and New York. Other senior executives have exited Tesla recently including senior vice president Drew Baglin, government affairs head Rohan Patel and top human resources executive Allie Arebalo.