Key Takeaways
- News services overnight reported declining Tesla sales and market value in China, though also an increase in shipments from China to other markets.
- Investor focus isn’t likely to shift entirely back to vehicle sales after a shareholder vote that marked a turning of the page to other ventures, but car sales still matter to the business.
Talking about Tesla’s auto sales just a few days after a $1 trillion vote might seem odd—but while they might not be the most interesting thing about the company these days, they still matter.
Reuters and other news services overnight reported that Tesla’s (TSLA) October auto sales in China fell to their lowest level in three years, about 26,000, citing the China Passenger Car Association. The reports indicated sliding market share in China, though also rising shipments of Teslas made in China to other markets.
That’s weighing a bit on Tesla’s shares, which were recently down more than 2% as broader markets inched lower in early trading. (Read Investopedia’s full live coverage of today’s trading here.) But investor attention is largely elsewhere: The shares jumped yesterday alongside U.S. stocks, lifted by optimism about a possible end to the government shutdown, and late last week they retreated in part on a sell-the-news reaction to a shareholder vote approving a big new pay package for CEO Elon Musk.
Why This Matters to Tesla Investors
Shares of Tesla were recently falling more than the broader market, slipping following news reports suggesting demand issues in China. Tesla investors have lately focused on broader questions in the wake of a shareholder vote meant to keep CEO Elon Musk around and in charge for a while, but vehicle sales still matter.
The vote removed a possible overhang—will Musk stick around for the next phase of Tesla’s growth or won’t he?—and formalized the company’s commitment to a set of targets upon which the CEO’s payout hinges. Several of them signal Tesla’s commitment to evolution into a business powered by robotaxis and robots.
But car sales remain important. For one, they still make up the lion’s share of Tesla’s revenue. And one of the targets requires the company to deliver a total of 20 million vehicles; another requires 10 million active subscriptions to Tesla’s self-driving software, which can’t happen without vehicle sales.
On a quarter-to-quarter basis, investors still care about the “old-school” Tesla business. Deliveries in the latest quarter came in higher than expected, though the expiration of U.S. subsidies likely pulled forward demand for it and other automakers.
