Tesla Vehicle Deliveries Shrank 13% Last Quarter — A Historic Decline As Elon Musk’s Troubles Mount

5 days ago 2

Topline

Tesla investors received more suboptimal news when Elon Musk’s automaker reported sales data below Wall Street’s already muted expectations, as Tesla’s headaches swell in wake of Musk’s cozying up to – and split from – President Donald Trump.

The declining vehicle deliveries came as Elon Musk fell out of favor with Donald Trump.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Tesla said Wednesday morning it delivered 384,122 vehicles to customers during the second quarter, coming in below consensus analyst forecasts of 387,000, according to FactSet data.

That’s a 13% decline compared to Q2 2024, when Tesla delivered 444,000 cars.

That narrowly surpasses 2025’s first quarter as Tesla’s largest year-over-year decline in vehicle deliveries on record.

Tesla Stock Rallies On Worse-Than-Expected Deliveries

In a perhaps confounding twist, shares of Tesla shot up more than 4% in premarket trading following the deliveries release. That’s because though the data was worse than consensus forecasts, it topped the most bearish projections on Wall Street, including J.P. Morgan’s forecast of 365,000 deliveries. Tesla stock often moves against conventional wisdom on financial data, and remains down more than 30% from its December all-time high.

Tangent

The quarterly vehicle delivery numbers, one of the key barometers of the company’s success, come the same week as Musk’s staredown intensified with Trump, a one-time close ally. Musk, who spent more than $200 million last year to help elect Trump, loudly disagreed with Trump’s spending bill which passed the Senate on Tuesday. Trump said he’d “look” at deporting the naturalized U.S. citizen Musk and would reevaluate government subsidies awarded to Musk’s companies, namely Tesla and aerospace firm SpaceX. Shares of Tesla slipped 5% on Tuesday to their lowest level in more than three weeks, extending their 2025 decline to more than 20%.

Big Number

13%. That’s how much Tesla vehicle deliveries declined from 2023’s record first half to 2025’s same stretch, as Musk’s increasingly polarizing reputation ate into Tesla ‘s popularity.

Surprising Fact

Musk fired Tesla’s head of North America and Europe operations Omead Afshar, Forbes first reported last week. In a potential sign of the seriousness of the declining sales, Musk will directly oversee sales in the U.S. and Europe following Afshar’s exit, according to Bloomberg.

Key Background

Tesla has wobbled as Musk, the richest man in the world, grew increasingly unpopular in the public eye, with sales slipping as Musk leaned into right-wing politics. Tesla new car registrations declined through each of 2025’s first five months in Europe, while sales in the key markets of China and California also tumbled. The company’s core vehicle business is slumping, but it has made progress in artificial intelligence, as it rolled out a limited launch of its long-awaited robotaxi driverless vehicle service in Austin, Texas, last month.

What To Watch For

Tesla will report Q2 earnings July 23 following market close, the company announced Wednesday. Consensus forecasts call for double-digit drops on Tesla’s bottom and top lines, with estimates coming in at $0.44 earnings per share, a 15% year-over-year decline, and $22.8 billion in revenue, a 12% drop.