It's multifactorial like everything in life. It's naive to assume that Elon has zero effect - a lot of people rightfully hate him. But beyond that, the market is getting saturated.
Indeed.
I'm not arguing Elon has zero effect. He has some. It's more negative now relative to the effect he had before he went hog-wild on Twitter.
Is it net negative or net positive overall? I'm not certain.
I suspect it is very net positive among white supremacists', but I don't know how large of an addressable market that is.
EV and car market are still growing, overall. But there are a LOT more options for us, the consumers, than there were a few years ago. Thus Tesla's market share and sales are declining.
That's net positive for EV market, and us, the consumers. EV sales in the US rose 2.6% year over year in Q1'24. The increase last quarter was well below the previous two years.
It is net negative to Tesla. Tesla sales in the U.S. were down 13.3% year over year in Q1'24.
And Tesla basically osbourned themselves by releasing the Highland without having the equivalent Y update ready shortly after.
Not just that.
For many, Highland was a bust. Degraded user experience (removal of stalks) and lower quality of the interior materials (cheap fabric in place of suede) are bad moves. Not a reason to upgrade.
Model Y is still selling OK-ish. Personally, I would not touch it with a ten-foot pole, but others are buying it.
Tesla's attention has been focused on releasing the debased Cybertruck, and now on anything else other than selling more cars: robots, AI, autonomous fluff, fraudo-taxi. Whatever it takes to spin-up the excitement in the market to juice-up the stock price.
In the mean time, the vehicle portfolio is aging, and the few models that got upgraded have become less desirable.
It is what it is.
And all of this is in a high interest rate environment when people just don't have as much disposable income.
US vehicle sales are UP overall, month over month, and quarter over quarter, in March'24.
In the first quarter of 2024, U.S. vehicle sales continue to see upward momentum due to improvements in inventory levels and better pricing.
finance.yahoo.com
Most global auto giants have reported impressive U.S. sales growth in the first quarter of 2024. Sales of Toyota, Honda , Volkswagen and Nissan have seen significant year-over-year improvements. But not everyone is a winner. General Motors and Tesla have recorded decline in the sales volume.
I would not overplay interest rate card. Elon does that way too much.
It has become a lame excuse for poor execution by Tesla.
Interest rates are higher, but economy is growing strong, so more people are earning more.
They are buying more vehicles. Just not Teslas.
And because existing resale absolutely tanked, a lot of people who may have been tempted to upgrade are holding onto their cars.
Tesla has consistently debased its residual values with price cuts. That is true.
Another significant contributing factor are new Federal EV credit rules, that bar most upper-middle-class buyers from being eligible for EV credit. Lease pass-through is a loop-hole, but not everyone wants to play the leasing game.
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stocks.apple.com
