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Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla sales have plummeted to their lowest level in three years after a backlash against its boss Elon Musk.
The electric car maker delivered almost 337,000 electric vehicles in the first three months of 2025, a 13% drop from a year ago.
Tesla shares tumbled in early trading on Wednesday after the release of the low sales numbers.
The cars face increasing competition from Chinese firm BYD, but experts believe Musk's controversial role in the Trump administration has had an effect too.
The firm has blamed the sales drop on the transition to a new version of its most popular car.
However, some analysts have pointed the finger at Musk himself.
"These numbers suck," early Tesla investor Ross Gerber of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management wrote on X.
"The brand is broken and may not be fixable", added Gerber, who was once a Musk supporter but has recently called for the board to remove the billionaire as CEO.
There have been protests and boycotts around the world prompted by Musk's outspoken and controversial political involvement.
He has been heading up President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative to cut federal spending and slash the government workforce.
On Wednesday, Politico reported that Trump had told his inner circle Musk would be stepping back from the administration in the coming weeks.
Shortly after the report was published, Tesla's share price turned positive.
The White House shot down the report as "garbage". Because he is considered a special government employee, Musk by law can only serve 130 days in the administration this year, which would put his departure closer to June.
The Tesla boss is the world's richest man and contributed more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump get elected in November.
In recent weeks, he poured millions into a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, supporting former Republican attorney general Brad Schimel who was soundly defeated on Tuesday.
The backlash against Musk has included "Tesla Takedown" protests at Tesla dealerships across the US and in Europe.
Tesla vehicles have also been vandalised, and Trump has said his administration would charge people who deface Teslas with "domestic terrorism."
Musk's stewardship of his businesses, including Tesla, has been called into question.
In a recent interview, he admitted he was running his enterprises "with great difficulty," adding: "Frankly, I can't believe I'm here doing this."
Tesla shares have lost more than a quarter of their value since the beginning of this year, as of 13:51 EDT (18:51 BST) on Wednesday.
"We are not going to look at these numbers with rose colored glasses... they were a disaster on every metric," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note on Wednesday.
"The more political [Musk] gets with DOGE the more the brand suffers, there is no debate."
Tesla did not respond to the BBC's request for comment, but said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that the numbers released on Wednesday "represent only two measures" of the company's performance and "should not be relied on as an indicator of quarterly financial results."
Those results will be made public on April 22 in a full earnings report for the quarter. They will "depend on a variety of factors, including average selling price, cost of sales, foreign exchange movements and others", Tesla said.
It also noted that it had temporarily suspended production of its Model Y sport utility vehicles in January.
Following the release of Wednesday's report, Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation of Teachers, one of the most powerful labour unions in the US, wrote to dozens of public pension funds about the state of Tesla, saying the company's latest sales numbers were "shaping up to be abysmal".
She urged them to take close looks at their Tesla holdings and at what their money managers are doing to "safeguard retirement assets".
"These declines seem in part to be driven by Musk spending his time pursuing political activities, some of which appear to be in conflict with Tesla's brand and business interests, rather than managing Tesla," Weingarten wrote.
The comptroller for New York City has already announced he is seeking to sue Tesla on behalf of the city's massive pension systems, saying on Tuesday they had lost more than $300m in three months from the company's plummeting stock price.
"Elon Musk is so distracted that he's driving Tesla off a financial cliff," said Comptroller Brad Lander in a statement. — BBC
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