AUSTIN, TEXAS – DECEMBER 13: A Tesla dealership is seen on December 13, 2023 in Austin, Texas. Tesla is recalling almost all vehicles sold in the United States after a nearly two-year investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed a defect in the Autopilot system. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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Tesla released its fourth quarter 2025 vehicle production and deliveries report Friday. Shares rose about 1% after the numbers were released.
Here are the key figures:
Total deliveries for the 4th quarter: 418 227 Total production for the 4th quarter: 434 358 Total deliveries 2025: 1.64 millionTotal production 2025: 1.65 millionWall Street expected 426,000 deliveries for the quarter, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount.
In a compiled by the company consensus published on its website on December 29, Tesla said surveyed analysts expected a 15% decline from a year earlier, to 422,850. vehicles for the quarter.
Fourth-quarter 2025 deliveries were about 16% lower than the fourth quarter of 2024, when Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company reported 495,570. The fourth-quarter 2025 production numbers were down 5.5% from last year, when Tesla produced 459,445 vehicles.
Tesla faces increased competition in the electric vehicle market from China’s BYD, South Korea’s Kia and Hyundai, and Volkswagen in Europe.
Deliveries are the closest approximation of Tesla’s reported sales, but are not precisely defined in the company’s shareholder communications.
For the full year, Tesla deliveries fell 8.6% to 1.64 million from 1.79 million in 2024. This is the second consecutive annual decline.
In its energy business, Tesla said it deployed 14.2 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage products in the fourth quarter, following a record in the previous period, when it deployed 12.5 GWh.
Tesla’s battery energy storage systems include battery backups for homes and larger systems used alongside data centers and utilities.
Tesla will report its fourth quarter financial results on January 28.
Tesla car sales were affected by That of President Donald Trump decision to end a federal incentive for electric vehicles by September 30, earlier than expected. The expiration pushed forward some electric vehicle sales into the third quarter for Tesla and other automakers.
Even before that, the start of 2025 was a difficult time for Tesla.
After spending heavily to propel Trump to the White House, Musk spent the first quarter of the year leading the president’s DOGE initiative to reduce the federal workforce.
Musk also supported the extremist German anti-immigration party, AfD, and later supported British anti-Muslim and anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson. In recent weeks, Musk called for the abolition the European Union.
Partly in response to Musk’s inflammatory rhetoric, Tesla has faced persistent consumer backlash in Europe and the United States. The company has not fully recovered despite introducing a new, more affordable version of its Model Y SUV in October.
However, Tesla shares rebounded again in the second half, jumping 40% in the third quarter, reaching a new high. save in mid-December. Musk bought 1 billion dollars value of shares in September.
Shareholders approved a new $1 trillion compensation plan for Musk in November, which will give the CEO more shares and greater control over the company. The vote came after Musk threatened to leave Tesla if the plan was not adopted.
Critics have expressed concerns that the plan does not require Musk to spend a minimum of time on his job at Tesla and that there are no limits on his political activity.
Read more CNBC tech newsAlthough Tesla does not distribute its deliveries geographically, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) shows that the company lost market share in the region in 2025.
Tesla’s European registrations fell 39% in the first 11 months of 2025, while Chinese rival BYD saw its registrations increase 240% in Europe. Overall, battery electric vehicles were more widely adopted in Europe in 2025, accounting for around 16% of all new vehicles sold in that country.
Some analysts predict that sales of Tesla’s more affordable standard Model Y, which the company launched in October, will help the company regain ground in coming quarters.
In a note last week, analysts at Cannacord Genuity wrote that adoption of electric vehicles is “rising rapidly in emerging markets such as Thailand, Vietnam and Brazil, where strong consumer interest could create significant long-term upside potential for Tesla, even as it faces fierce rivalry from Chinese automakers.”
In addition to BYD, Tesla now faces competition from others Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers including Xiaomi And Geely.
But Tesla is selling investors on Musk’s vision of the future, or what he calls “sustainable abundance,” more than electric vehicle sales. That vision includes robo-taxis, which Musk has promised for years, and humanoid robots, which he says will one day be able to serve as factory workers, babysitters, crime-fighters and surgeons.
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