• Tesla stock tumble as first-quarter deliveries were worse than expected.
  • “They were a disaster on every metric,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.
  • The stock is also under pressure as competition rises from Chinese EV makers.

Tesla stock tumbled on Wednesday after the electric vehicle maker posted sales figures that were even more downbeat than Wall Street was expecting.

Shares of the automaker dropped as much as 5% to an intraday low of $252.45 before paring losses. Tesla was among the biggest market losers in the first quarter amid weak sales data, rising competition, and frustration with CEO Elon Musk and his work slashing the budget of the federal government.

Two days into the new quarter, Wednesday’s sell-off suggests more pain to come. Here’s what is top of mind for investors as the stock dips.

A big miss on Q1 deliveries

Any hope that Tesla sales might not be as bad as expected was quickly dashed on Wednesday, as the company released first-quarter deliveries data that undershot even the lowest expectations.

The firm delivered 336,000 total cars for the quarter versus estimates of 390,300 deliveries, citing weeks of lost production to factory line changes ahead of the new Model Y. That’s 13% lower than the same period last year.

Tesla's justification didn't satisfy Wall Street.

"336k total cars delivered is bad even considering the model Y change. Will the new model Y really help sales in q2? I suspect not much. Tesla is on track for another year of material declines in sales. Tesla EV production capacity is running at like 65% of potential," Tesla investor Ross Gerber wrote on X. "The high end EV business has totally eroded. The cybertruck is basically not selling. The brand is broken and may not be fixable."

Grim Tesla sales data from the past few months has prepared analysts for a tough report, but even the most downbeat expectations were higher than Wednesday's figures. For instance, Deutsche Bank predicted deliveries to hit between 340,000 and 350,000.

"We are not going to look at these numbers with rose colored glasses...they were a disaster on every metric," wrote Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, typically a Tesla perma-bull.

Chinese competitors grind higher

There's also new data to suggest that Tesla's business in China is under increasing pressure.

Domestic competitor BYD sold 371,419 vehicles in March, pushing sales up 58% from the same period a year ago, though not all of these were necessarily EVs.

Meanwhile, Tesla sold 78,828 EVs in March, marking an 11.5% drop year-on-year.

BYD has increasingly positioned itself as a major rival to Tesla's foothold in the country. Last month, Tesla shares fell on news that BYD had developed an electric vehicle charger that it claims can provide a 400-kilometer range on a five-minute charge. That's a step up from current charging tech, with Tesla's quickest version providing a 275-kilometer range after 15 minutes of charging.

"With the current headwinds for TSLA across the industry including protests at Tesla dealerships, violence seen at TSLA drivers around the country/Europe, and more Musk-related brand worries, this delivery number was a disaster for the bulls with continuous negativity around the TSLA brand,"

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