Tesla Cybertruck fails to boost 2024 sales as annual deliveries fall for first time

Tesla delivered fewer cars last year than it did in 2023, marking its first year-to-year drop and signaling that the company is struggling to reach new buyers. That means Tesla’s Cybertruck, which is the company’s first true new model since 2020, did little to boost the company’s growth in its first full year of sales.

The company announced Thursday it delivered 1.77 million vehicles globally in 2024, down 2.2% from 1.81 million in 2023. Just 85,133 of those vehicles delivered were what Tesla refers to as “other models,” which includes the aging Model S sedan, Model X SUV, and the Cybertruck. Tesla’s stock, which has been on a run since CEO Elon Musk helped Donald Trump win re-election in November, dropped about 5.4% as of 10:20 a.m. ET.

Image Credits:Tesla

The drop in deliveries is a stark change for Tesla and Musk, which spent years promoting the goal of a 50% annual growth rate. The company already started to miss that mark over the last few years — even with massive, unrelenting price cuts. The drop in 2024 is the first time annual sales actually declined since Tesla started delivering its first mass-market car, the Model S, in 2012.

Tesla warned investors at the beginning of last year that growth may be “notably lower” in 2024, and claimed it was a company in between “two major growth waves.” In April, Tesla laid off more than 10% of its workforce in a restructuring that was meant to re-focus on Musk’s long-promised idea of making a fully functioning robotaxi.

At the same time, Tesla abandoned plans to make a $25,000 electric vehicle. The only other new vehicles it has in the near-term pipeline are mysterious models the company says will be built on existing production lines. They’re expected to be cheaper than Tesla’s current offerings (which start in the low $40,000 range), though it’s not clear by how much.

Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.

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