Tesla’s global sales fell for the second straight quarter despite price cuts and low-interest financing offers, another sign of weakening demand for the company’s products and electric vehicles overall FILE - Unsold 2023 Model X sports-utility vehicles sit at a Tesla dealership, June 18, 2023, in Littleton, Colo. Tesla, the top selling electric vehicle maker in the world, is expected to report a second straight quarter of declining deliveries on Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
Tesla also sold over 33,000 more vehicles during the second quarter than it produced, which should reduce the company’s inventory on hand at its stores. Nearly all of Tesla’s sales came from the smaller and less-expensive Models 3 and Y, with the company selling only 21,551 of its more expensive models that include X and S, as well as the new Cybertruck.
In addition, Tesla in May offered 0.99% financing for up to six years on the Model Y. In June, it offered interest as low as 1.99% for three years on the rear-wheel-drive Model 3. Typical new-vehicle interest rates average just over 7%, according to Edmunds.com. Tesla’s “haphazard” price cuts don’t work as well as they once did because consumers now expect them, she said. “We’ve seen the automaker exhaust its bag of tricks by lowering prices and increasing incentives to spur demand without much success in the U.S. market,” Caldwell said.