(Reuters) – Tesla’s reported move to scrap plans for a low-cost car marks the latest disappointment for investors who have dumped shares of the automaker this year on worries over slowing demand, an aging vehicle line-up and rising Chinese competition.
Reuters reported earlier on Friday that Tesla has canceled the long-promised inexpensive car but will continue developing self-driving robotaxis on the same small-vehicle platform.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker fell 4.7% on the news. They were already down nearly 32% this year, as of last close, making them among the worst performers on the S&P 500 index.
Here are five charts on Tesla’s rocky ride in 2024:
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN LAGGARD
This year’s slump in Tesla stock has threatened its place in an elite grouping of companies that powered a surge in U.S. markets in recent years, several market experts have said.
The so-called “Magnificent Seven” consists of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Nvidia and Tesla.
But Tesla is no longer looking so magnificent, and some analysts say AI-linked names such as Advanced Micro Devices or Broadcom might be more appropriate as part of that group of big market gainers.
SINKING MARKET VALUE
Tesla has lost more than $250 billion in market value this year. While it remains the world’s most valuable automaker, Toyota Motor is slowly narrowing the gap as the Japanese company rides a boom in demand for hybrid vehicles.
Toyota’s shares have risen nearly 40% this year, pushing its market value up by around $80 billion. But some analysts have warned Toyota remains a laggard in pure battery EVs, which are widely viewed as the long-term future of the auto industry.
At its peak in late 2021, Tesla’s market cap surpassed more than $1 trillion in value, but the stock has lost more than half its value since then.
DELIVERIES SLUMP
Tesla posted a decline in quarterly deliveries for the first time since the second quarter of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down a significant amount of production at its factories.
Analysts have said that the effects of Tesla’s margin-sapping price cuts to boost demand have been waning with the company producing many more vehicles than it is handing over to customers.
GLOBAL AUTOMAKERS SALES TOWER TESLA’S
Automakers such as Volkswagen, Toyota and Honda sold far more vehicles than Tesla in 2023, yet the EV maker’s market capitalization eclipses that of Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche combined.
MUSK’S PERSONA POLARIZES WOULD-BE BUYERS
The number of would-be Tesla buyers in the U.S. is shrinking, according to a survey by market intelligence firm Caliber, which attributed the drop in part to CEO Elon Musk’s polarizing persona.
Caliber’s “consideration score” for Tesla fell to 31% in February, less than half its high of 70% in November 2021 when it started tracking consumer interest in the brand.
Reuters spoke to five marketing, polling and car experts who said controversies surrounding Musk’s increasingly right-wing politics and public statements are weighing on Tesla’s brand and demand.
(Reporting by Aditya Soni, Akash Sriram and Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
