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No access Chinese mainland CCTV Newscontent www.cctvplus.com +86-10-83949886 +86-10-63978447 contact@cctvplus.com 2026-04-03T21:38:33Z 2026-04-03T21:38:33Z 2026-04-03 2014-11-06T09:22:45Z China Central Television United States Economy/Other April 2, 2026/File USA-Tesla/Sales Slump/Analyst Tesla deliveries in Q1 fall short of expectations as Musk's popularity falls: analyst Leading U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla has reported underwhelming delivery figures in the first quarter of 2026, marking the weakest performance for several quarters, with one analyst putting the slump down to CEO Elon Musk's unpopular foray into politics and the company's failure to scale-up its operations. Tesla delivered just over 358,000 vehicles globally in the first quarter, missing analyst expectations which had projected the firm would hit a target of more than 368,900 vehicles during the period. Tesla produced 408,386 new vehicles and installed 8.8 gigawatt-hours of energy storage capacity during the first three months, down from the 10.4 gigawatt-hours it posted a year ago. There was more bad news on the markets on Thursday as Tesla's share price closed down 5.42 percent after weak sales, leaving the stock about 20 percent below this year's peak. Analysts believe one of the key factors causing the imbalance between production and demand is U.S. President Donald Trump's decision not to renew a 7,500 U.S. dollar EV tax credit for new purchases, with the Trump administration appearing less than enthusiastic about the green transition. Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of the Detroit-based market research agency Telemetry, believes Tesla's disappointing Q1 slump is down to much more, pointing to Musk's controversial involvement in politics and his position in the now defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). "There's generally been a lot of damage done to the Tesla brand over the past year in particular, but the past several years, primarily related to Elon Musk's activities in politics. There's a lot of people who would otherwise be EV buyers and people interested in EVs who are just completely turned off by Elon Musk," said Abuelsamid, vice president of market research of the agency. In addition, Abuelsamid said rising competition from Chinese-made EVs has also weighed on sales, even though Tesla saw its sales in China rise for a second consecutive quarter. He also thinks that with Musk distracted by too many projects, Tesla has fallen behind in its adoption of advanced technology and has failed to sufficiently scale up its operations to the next level, leaving it trailing behind rivals in this regard. "The problem is, the other things that he talks about as being the future of the company, they're not ready. Humanoid robotics, especially Tesla's robots, are just nowhere near being ready to be useful in any kind of volume. And their automated driving systems again are not ready to be deployed at scale anywhere as true 'robotaxis'," said the analyst. English/Nats/Part Mute Beijing, China - April 3, 2026 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland) 1. Graphic showing shares trading of Tesla fell to 360.59 U.S. dollars on April 2 FILE: Palo Alto, California, USA - April 2, 2025 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland) 2. Sign outside Tesla headquarters FILE: California, USA - Dec 9, 2025 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland) 3. Various of Tesla electric vehicles charging 4. Sign for Tesla charging facility Exact Location Unknown, USA - April 2, 2026 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland) 5. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Abuelsamid, vice president, market research, Telemetry Agency (starting with shot 4): "There's generally been a lot of damage done to the Tesla brand over the past year in particular, but the past several years, primarily related to Elon Musk's activities in politics. There's a lot of people who would otherwise be EV buyers and people interested in EVs who are just completely turned off by Elon Musk." FILE: Shanghai, China - Feb 2025 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland) 6. Aerial shots of Tesla logo, factory FILE: Shanghai, China - Sept 7, 2023 (Shanghai Media Group - No access Chinese mainland) 7. Cars rolling off assembly line at Tesla factory Exact Location Unknown, USA - April 2, 2026 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland) 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Sam Abuelsamid, vice president, market research, Telemetry Agency (starting with shot 4): "The problem is, the other things that he talks about as being the future of the company, they're not ready. Humanoid robotics, especially Tesla's robots, are just nowhere near being ready to be useful in any kind of volume. And their automated driving systems again are not ready to be deployed at scale anywhere as true 'robotaxis'." California, USA - Dec 9, 2025 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland) 9. Tesla factory 10. Various of Tesla