Tesla, whose sales have slowed down, has been exposed to be facing unprecedented inventory pressure. According to the Daily Economic News citing foreign media reports, Tesla reported producing 433400 cars in the first quarter of this year, but only sold 386800, a year-on-year decrease of 8.5%. This means that 46500 cars have not been sold.
In order to store these unsold cars, Tesla piled them up in the parking lot. Satellite images of the Texas Superfactory show that the parking lot around the factory is already completely stacked.
Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja stated that the main reason for the increase in inventory is the mismatch between production and orders.
In the first quarter of this year, Tesla's revenue experienced its first decline in nearly four years, with the largest decline since 2012, and its net profit also halved. Afterwards, Tesla announced that it would lay off over 10% of its workforce globally, involving at least 14000 people.
Tesla's highly anticipated autonomous driving business has also been hit recently. This week, a California court in the United States rejected Tesla's attempt to withdraw false advertising allegations against its autonomous driving technology.
According to previous reports, the California Motor Vehicle Administration (DMV) began investigating Tesla's alleged publication of misleading autonomous driving advertisements in 2021. The investigation results show that there is inconsistency between Tesla's external claims and the materials submitted to DMV. In 2022, DMV officially questioned Tesla, demanding a response to allegations of exaggerating its autonomous driving function. Tesla filed an appeal against this.
The reason for Tesla's appeal is that they have been promoting the autonomous driving function in this way and have not been stopped, so they should be able to continue doing so. However, the court does not recognize this claim, stating that Tesla exaggerated its advertising during sales and misled consumers, and ruling that the case will enter the court trial stage.
This is not the only lawsuit Tesla has been facing recently. Last month, the San Francisco court also rejected Tesla's appeal to withdraw a class action lawsuit against false advertising for autonomous driving, and the lawsuit will continue to be heard. The case mentioned that Tesla promised to achieve autonomous driving soon when selling, but it did not.
In addition, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also investigating whether Tesla's autonomous driving advertisements have engaged in securities fraud.
Tesla has long referred to assisted driving software as "Autopilot" and "Full Self Driving". Although FSD functionality has indeed become increasingly powerful, the reality is that Tesla still cannot achieve fully autonomous driving, and drivers still need to be vigilant at all times. According to the classification of autonomous driving levels by the International Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), both systems belong to the "L2" level.
It is worth noting that Tesla recently renamed the FSD system "FSD (Supervised Fully Autonomous Driving)", emphasizing that even if the driver does not need to frequently operate the vehicle, they still need to sit in the driver's seat and take over at any time.
FSD is widely regarded by the outside world as a key technology for whether Tesla can usher in a second growth curve, and Tesla is actively promoting its implementation globally. In China, Tesla has officially partnered with Baidu Maps, which is about to launch its lane level navigation system. This may pave the way for FSD to land in China ahead of schedule.
In addition, Tesla's upcoming Robotaxi, which will be released on August 8th, has also been poured with cold water. Morgan Stanley analyst Ryan Brinkman stated in his latest report that Tesla's Robotaxi business is unlikely to achieve profitability in the short term, which may disappoint some investors in the company.