US electric car manufacturer Tesla last quarter recorded its first drop in sales in nearly four years.
Total revenue fell by 9% year-on-year to $21.3 billion, the manufacturer announced after the US stock exchange closed on Tuesday. Analysts had expected an average turnover of $22.15 billion.
Tesla's earnings per share were also below market expectations. On balance, the net income attributable to common stockholders in the quarter fell by 55% to $1.13 billion.
The decline became apparent after Tesla earlier this month announced it missed expectations with deliveries of around 387,000 vehicles in the first quarter, a 8.5% drop year-on-year and a 20% decline compared to the last quarter of 2023.
Tesla pointed out, among other things, that production at the Grünheide plant near Berlin was temporarily suspended in the first quarter following an attack on the power supply.
For the current year, Tesla did not initially provide a specific forecast for deliveries, but expects a noticeable slowdown in the pace of growth compared to 2023.
In a conference call, boss Elon Musk stressed that he expects sales to increase. The share price rose by more than 7% at times in after-hours trading. Since the beginning of the year, the share price had fallen by more than 40%.
The manufacturer last week announced that it would cut more than a tenth of its workforce worldwide, equivalent to an estimated 14,000 employees, pointing to a slump in the market for EVs and weak sales worldwide.