The revenue in the fourth quarter increased by three percent compared to the same period last year, reaching $25.17 billion. Analysts had anticipated revenues of nearly $25.8 billion on average. However, the adjusted earnings per share of $0.71 fell short of the experts' expectations of $0.74.
While other U.S. automakers struggled last year to produce and sell a large quantity of electric vehicles, Tesla reported 484,507 deliveries in the fourth quarter and over 1.8 million for 2023. Substantial price cuts helped Tesla achieve this figure—at the expense of the margin.
The operating margin in Q4 was only 8.2 percent, significantly below the previous year's quarter value of 16 percent. However, not only discounts play a role here. In the automaker's U.S. factories, significant wage increases were recently introduced to remain competitive with other automakers in an ongoing tight labor market.
Conclusion
The disappointed reaction to Tesla's Q4 report may be attributed to the lack of a forecast for electric vehicle deliveries in 2024. The long-term goal of 50 percent volume growth per year was also not reiterated. Tesla stated that sales growth in 2024 could be significantly lower than in 2023, contrary to analysts' expectations of nearly 2.2 million deliveries. Despite price cuts, Tesla sold just over 1.8 million vehicles.
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