Tesla reports 418,227 deliveries for the fourth quarter, down 16%

Tesla posted its fourth-quarter 2025 vehicle production and deliveries report on Friday. Shares climbed about 2% after the numbers were released.

Wall Street expected 426,000 deliveries for the quarter, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount.

In a company-compiled consensus posted to its website on Dec. 29, Tesla said analysts it surveyed were expecting a 15% drop from a year earlier to 422,850 vehicles for the quarter.

Deliveries for Q4 2025 were about 16% lower than the fourth quarter of 2024, when Elon Musk’s EV company reported 495,570 deliveries. Q4 2025 numbers for production were down 5.5% from a year ago, when Tesla produced 459,445 vehicles.

Tesla faces heightened 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 sales reported by Tesla, but are not precisely defined in the company’s shareholder communications.

In its energy business, Tesla said that it deployed 14.2 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage products in the fourth quarter, following a record in the prior period, when it deployed 12.5 GWh.

Tesla’s battery energy storage systems include backup batteries for homes and larger systems used alongside data centers and utilities.

Tesla will report its fourth-quarter financial results on Jan. 28.

Sales of Tesla’s cars were impacted by President Donald Trump’s decision to end a federal EV incentive by Sept. 30, earlier than previously planned. The expiration pulled some EV sales forward to the third quarter for Tesla and other automakers.

Even before that, the start of 2025 was a struggle for Tesla.

After spending heavily to propel Trump back to the White House, Musk spent the first quarter of the year leading the president’s DOGE initiative to slash the federal workforce.

Musk also endorsed Germany’s extremist anti-immigrant party, AfD, and later supported British anti-Muslim and anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson. In recent weeks, Musk has called to abolish the European Union.

Partly in response to Musk’s incendiary rhetoric, Tesla has faced an enduring consumer backlash in Europe and the U.S. The company hasn’t fully recovered despite introducing a new, more affordable version of its Model Y SUV in October.

However, Tesla shares still rallied in the second half of the year, jumping 40% in the third quarter, reaching a fresh record in mid-December. Musk bought $1 billion worth of shares in September.

Shareholders approved a new $1 trillion pay plan for Musk in November that will give the CEO more shares and increased control over the company. The vote came after Musk threatened to potentially leave Tesla if the plan didn’t pass.

Critics voiced concerns that the plan doesn’t require Musk to spend a minimum amount of time on his Tesla work, and that there are no limits on his political activity.