Sales of Tesla electric cars fell sharply in the last three months as boycotts over Elon Musk's political views continue to keep buyers away, a significant development given expectations that anger with the company's billionaire CEO would have faded by now.
The company reported a 13% plunge in sales on Wednesday in another sign that Musk's embrace of U.S. President Donald Trump and far-right politicians in Europe has had a deep and enduring hit to Tesla’s brand appeal. The new figures also suggest that Tesla could disappoint when it announces second quarter earnings later this month. In the first three months of this year, net income fell 71%.
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Sales fell to 384,122 in April through June, down from 443,956 in the same period last year. During this period, Musk formally left the Trump administration as a cost-cutting czar and hopes rose that sales would recover.
Sales of the Models 3 and Y totaled 373,728, above the estimate of 356,000 from Wall Street analysts. Tesla shares rose about 1.5% in early trading.
Tesla is also facing stiff competition from other electric makers, especially in Europe where China's BYD has taken a bite out of its market share.
Musk has acknowledged that his work as head of the Department of Government Efficiency and his embrace of European far-right candidates have hurt the company. But he attributed much of the sales plunge to customers holding off while they waited for new versions of Tesla's best selling Model Y, and recently predicted a major turnaround in sales.
The new figures come as the company is focusing less on coming out with new models and more on robots, self-driving technology and robotaxis ferrying passengers around without anyone behind the wheel.
Tesla is in the midst of a test run of robotaxis in Austin, Texas, that seems to have gone smoothly for the most part. But it also has drawn the scrutiny of federal car safety regulators because of a few mishaps, including one case in which a Tesla cab was shown on a widely shared video heading down an opposing lane.
