Tesla’s sales recover slightly, but the trend lines are all bad

Instead analysts are looking at how this quarter stacks up against the previous one, and they’re not finding a lot to like. Tesla said it delivered 358,023 vehicles to customers, down 14 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. And it produced 408,306 vehicles, which was down 6 percent quarter over quarter.

In other words, Tesla is still in rough shape, having recorded two consecutive years of declining sales. It is making and selling fewer cars than it used to, as Musk attempts to wrestle his company away from automotive sales and towards robotaxis and humanoid robots. In Europe, the company lost nearly half of its market share thanks to rising competition, especially from Chinese brands, and Musk’s hard-right political commentary.

Globally, EV sales have been softening. Tesla, along with most other automakers, have been hurt by the elimination of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Dozens of electric models have been cancelled or delayed in recent weeks.

In 2025, Tesla brought in $94.8 billion in revenue, $69.5 billion — or 73 percent — of which was from car sales. Its automotive revenues have been in free fall, down 10 percent year over year, while its other revenue streams — energy generation and storage; and services and other revenue — are on the upswing. But even there, things are looking iffy. This past quarter, Tesla said it deployed 8.8 GWh of energy products, which is a drop from the 10.4 GWh of storage the company deployed in Q1 2025.

In all major categories — vehicle sales, production, and energy storage — Tesla is coming in below expectations. Wall Street analysts were expecting 370,000 customer deliveries and 14.4 GWh of storage. And yet Musk continues to push the message that Tesla was on the cusp of becoming a global leader in AI and robotics.

Of course, most of his focus is likely on the imminent public debut of his other company, SpaceX, which is expected to be historic and make him exponentially more wealthy than he already is. The company was valued at $1.25 trillion after recently merging with Musk’s xAI. Tesla’s struggles surely look quaint in comparison.