Tesla Delivers 386,810 Units in Q1 2024, and Its Days of Finished Goods Inventory Metric Explodes Despite Trying To Pull Forward the Demand

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Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has just concluded one of its most challenging quarters on record, and it has the wounds to show for its monumental struggle, going so far as to try to pull forward the demand from upcoming quarters by unleashing price hikes that became effective at the turn of the month, all in a bid to compel buyers to lock in orders in Q1. Even so, Tesla just barely evaded having to record a quarter with negative year-over-year growth in deliveries.

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Tesla has been throwing everything, including the proverbial kitchen sink, at its persistent anemic demand problem. Yet, the company continues to face stiff competition from BYD in China, resulting in a waning demand momentum. What's more, Tesla is also contending with flattish sales momentum in Europe, aggravated by a recent damaging arson incident at Giga Berlin that halted production for a number of days, with repairs expected to cost around $100 million euros. Meanwhile, in the US, Tesla's production has been hampered by the ongoing upgrades to its Fremont factory - a necessary pain point for ramping up the production of Model 3 Highland.

As we explained in a dedicated post, Tesla tried to implement a number of measures to improve its quarterly sales outlook. In order to get rid of elevated inventories at Giga Shanghai, the EV giant offered incentives worth $4,807 to buyers of the Model 3 sedan or the Model Y SUV.

Even though Tesla raised the price of the Model Y LR and RWD variants by $1,000 in the US on the 01st of March to alleviate some of the pressure on its margins, it countered this move by offering 5,000 free supercharging miles to customers in the US who bought a new Tesla vehicle by the 31st of March, 2024, essentially trying to pull forward demand