Transcript:
Conway Gittens: A sales slump at Tesla (TSLA) has extended into the new year. In China, sales were down 11.5 percent in January. Tesla isn’t keeping up with fierce homegrown competition. For example, during the same period, Chinese automaker BYD saw its sales surge 47 percent.
Elon Musk’s attempts to revive lagging sales in that key market don’t appear to be working. Tesla has cut prices on the Model Y and kept a five-year interest-free loan program in place until the end of January. It also revamped the Model Y specifically for the Chinese market but to little success.
Related: Three big takeaways from Tesla’s latest earnings
The slump, however, is not limited to China. Global sales were down for all of 2024 and the trend continues across Europe. Sales in January tumbled 59 percent in Germany, 63 percent in France, and 12 percent in Britain. Musk has used his position as the world’s richest man to voice controversial political opinions that are turning off carbuyers. His close association with President Trump and his inclusion in U.S. government affairs is further alienating buyers across major Western nations.
But it’s not just Musk’s political leanings that’s a problem. Tesla has yet to produce an affordable mass-market EV. Analysts believe that is the key to any possible sales revival for Tesla.
Turning now to market news this Friday. There’s a mildly negative tone to the stock market after the January jobs report. The U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected but the December number was revised sharply higher. The unemployment rate fell to 4 percent. Meanwhile, wages jumped 4.1 percent from the same time last year. The report gives the Federal Reserve more breathing room before it has to decide what to do next with interest rates.
That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From the New York Stock Exchange, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.
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