Tesla Q1 delivery shortfall

Tesla delivered 358,023 vehicles in the first quarter, falling below the 365,645 deliveries in Tesla’s own compiled Wall Street consensus. (tesla.com 1) (tesla.com 2) Tesla said on April 2 that it produced 408,386 vehicles in the quarter and delivered 358,023, including 341,893 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and 16,130 from its other models. The gap between production and deliveries was about 50,000 vehicles. (tesla.com) Tesla’s consensus sheet, published March 26, showed analysts expected 351,179 Model 3 and Model Y deliveries, 13,946 deliveries of other models, and 365,645 total deliveries from 23 estimates. CNBC reported a separate StreetAccount estimate of about 370,000 deliveries. (tesla.com) (cnbc.com) The delivery number landed three weeks before Tesla’s April 22 earnings report, when investors were already focused on whether the company could turn unit growth back into revenue growth. Tesla told investors it would post full first-quarter financial results after market close on Wednesday, April 22, with a management webcast at 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. (tesla.com) The production-delivery gap matters because vehicles built but not handed to customers can swell inventory, and inventory can pressure pricing if a company has to use discounts to clear cars. TradingKey calculated the quarter’s implied inventory build at 50,363 vehicles from Tesla’s reported production and delivery totals. (tradingkey.com) (tesla.com) Tesla’s energy business also drew attention. The company reported 8.8 gigawatt-hours of energy storage deployments in the quarter, down from 14.2 gigawatt-hours in the fourth quarter of 2025, while Tesla’s April 17 analyst consensus had pointed to 14.4 gigawatt-hours for the first quarter. (tesla.com 1) (tesla.com 2) Analysts going into earnings were looking for about $21.9 billion in first-quarter revenue and earnings per share of $0.36, according to Tesla’s company-compiled consensus. Electrek said those forecasts were being tested by lower-than-expected deliveries, higher inventory, and weaker storage volumes. (tesla.com) (electrek.co) Tesla has cautioned investors not to use deliveries and storage deployments alone to infer quarterly financial performance, because revenue depends on product mix, foreign exchange, lease accounting, and other items. The company repeated that warning in its April 2 release. (tesla.com) The next test is Tesla’s full earnings report on April 22, when the company will have to show whether a quarter with 358,023 deliveries and 8.8 gigawatt-hours of storage still produced the revenue and margins Wall Street expected. (tesla.com 1) (tesla.com 2)