Slow down! Tesla’s growth finally stutters after 10 years, but 2025 is already shaping up to be a corker for the US EV brand
Tesla has announced 2024 was the first year it didn’t deliver back-to-back growth for 10 years.
The US firm produced and sold 1,789,226 vehicles globally, down on the 1,808,581cars that found homes in 2023.
But that number still sees Tesla remain the world’s biggest EV producer for volume.
READ MORE: Spotted! New 2025 Tesla Model Y ‘Juniper’ surfaces again just weeks before reveal and it looks far more than just a super-sized Model 3
READ MORE: Tesla to finally unlock 500kW V4 Supercharger capability. Here’s why it won’t benefit Tesla owners…
READ MORE: New 2025 Tesla Model 3 Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive smashes range barrier! Leaves Polestar 2 and BYD Seal behind
Reflecting a one per cent decline in total global volume, Tesla still ended the year on a high following a strong Q4 performance that saw it sell 495,570 cars.
That beat the 484,507 record set in Q4 of 2023.
If it can maintain those numbers, Tesla could end 2025 with more than 1.9 million cars finding homes globally and that would be a new record.
In Australia, Tesla finished 2024 with 38,347 sales, down 16.58 per cent on its 46,120 sales in 2023.
The Tesla Model Y SUV was its biggest seller with 21,253 sales, down 26.13 per cent. The Model 3 sedan finished with 17,094 sales, down only 1.48 per cent on 2023..
Helping boost investors spirits CEO Elon Musk has announced that Tesla’s bounce back in 2025 will see an uplift in volumes next year of between 20 to 30 per cent.
Driving the volume will be new product, with both the 2025 Model Y facelift arriving early this year as well as new more affordable models.
Blunting Tesla’s sales success in 2024 was both a lack of new or refreshed models as well as reduced European subsidies, more plentiful competition and the general trend in the US of buyers snapping up lower-priced hybrids.
Its newest vehicle, the Cybertruck, has not lived up to the pre-launch order expectation either.
Some good news for Tesla included an impressive performance in China.
While some European brands suffered sales disasters in 2024, Tesla sales rose in China by 8.8 per cent to 657,000 cars, with the firm selling 83,000 units in December, alone.
Fuelling high volume has been a 10,000-yuan ($A2150) discount on loans for its best-selling Model Y as well as zero-per-cent-interest finance deal for up to five years for the Model 3 and Model Y.
