New York (CNN) — Tesla sales fell for the second straight quarter, the first time in its history it posted a consecutive year-over-year decline in sales.
Tesla’s sales for the quarter came in at nearly 444,000, down about 5% from a year ago. That’s less than the 8.5% drop the company saw in the first quarter. But Tesla, and its share price that has made CEO Elon Musk one of the wealthiest people in the world, has been built on a history of growing auto sales.
Before this year there was only one quarter in the company’s history – at the peak of the pandemic when factories were closed by stay-at-home orders – that the company had reported a year-over-year decline in sales.
There was some good news in the sales numbers though. Sales were stronger than the 436,000 forecast from some analysts. And it was enough to beat out Chinese automaker BYD to retain the lead position in global sales of purely electric vehicles.
On Monday, BYD reported EV sales of 426,000. That is 21% more than a year ago, as BYD continues to close the gap on Tesla. In the fourth quarter BYD briefly passed Tesla in global EV sales.
But the better-than-expected Tesla sales were enough to lift shares of Tesla (TSLA) by more than 5% in pre-market trading. Shares are still down more than 10% year-to-date, however, even with Tuesday’s jump.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.