Tesla’s Stock Tanks as Q2 Sales Disappoint—Elon’s ’Growth Story’ Hits a Pothole

Tesla bulls got a reality check today as shares plummeted 9% pre-market after missing delivery targets by a country mile. The ’unstoppable’ EV juggernaut just proved it’s still at the mercy of old-school economics—who knew selling $100k trucks during a recession might be tricky?

Production hell returns: Fremont factory output drops 15% YoY despite those viral Cybertruck memes. Meanwhile, legacy automakers are eating Tesla’s lunch in China—where subsidies now favor domestic players. Nothing disrupts like government intervention.

Analysts slash price targets as inventory piles up. ’But the robots will fix everything!’ cry the true believers, ignoring that Elon’s AI promises have the shelf life of a Bitcoin maximalist’s patience.

Tesla (TSLA) stock fell more than 3% in early trading on Tuesday but bounced back to just 1.75% loss from the previous day by the afternoon. The stock is being hindered by news of poor sales around the world.

Germany registered only 885 Tesla vehicles in April, which is about half of what was registered at that same time in 2024. Tesla stock is sitting at $276.19, however, which is up from $171 at the same time last year.

Tesla is facing strong competition from China, as the BYD company saw 1,556 of their vehicles registered in Germany for April. Electric vehicles are not the problem for Tesla. These vehicles are becoming more popular, with an increase of 53.5% EV registrations for this year compared to last year. In Germany, electric vehicles account for about 19% of the market.

Around the world, Tesla sales are dropping. There are multiple reasons for this, and the most notable are that political anger is aimed at Tesla CEO Elon Musk and strong competition for Tesla is coming out of China. In Germany in particular Musk is very unpopular, as he has backed the Alternative for Germany political party.

Tesla sales have been dropping in Germany for the past few months while its competitors continue to perform well. In those months, Tesla sales have fallen a total of 60%, and this problem does not look like it will go away soon.

While there have been rumors that Musk will be replaced as CEO, Tesla has denied those rumors and continues to throw their support behind their embattled head. Meanwhile, Musk may be stepping back from at least some of his duties as the head of Doge (Department of Government Efficiency) and spending more time focusing on Tesla and his other business ventures.