‘Brutal’: Certainly one of Elon Musk’s Greatest Followers Reacts to Tesla Gross sales Miss

It isn’t simply Wall Avenue analysts and traders who reacted with shock at how dangerous Tesla’s quarterly gross sales have been.

Tesla’s on-line followers processed the gross sales whiff in actual time on social media on Wednesday.

Omar Qazi, higher recognized by his on-line deal with @WholeMarsBlog, is one in every of Elon Musk’s most seen supporters on-line and ceaselessly interacts with the billionaire on X.

“Brutal,” wrote Qazi, who hosts a Tesla-focused podcast known as “The Gigacast” with two different Tesla followers.

“I believe these are the worst quarterly manufacturing & supply numbers I’ve ever seen for Tesla,” he added.

Qazi stated that he “did not see anybody projecting numbers decrease than what we really noticed,” and stated in a later submit that it “seems like Tesla gross sales could not” return to progress this 12 months like the corporate projected in January.

Tesla reported supply numbers of just below 336,700 EVs for the primary quarter on Wednesday, coming in nicely under analysts’ expectations of about 390,300 deliveries. The numbers marked a 13% year-over-year lower in gross sales and Tesla’s worst quarterly deliveries since 2022.

Qazi attributed Tesla’s supply decline to the Mannequin Y manufacturing loss — which the corporate additionally highlighted in its report — and appeared to disagree that Tesla’s numbers had been negatively impacted by model harm or anti-Musk sentiment.

“Did model harm trigger manufacturing to say no by 97,000 models sequentially? Or was that downtime in 4 factories on their greatest promoting product,” Qazi wrote in response to a submit from analyst Gene Munster saying model harm had price Tesla 80,000 deliveries.

In the meantime, Tesla bull Dan Ives partly blamed the gross sales decline on Musk’s affect on the model. Ives wrote in a submit on X along with refresh points, Tesla is grappling with a “model disaster.”

“We knew 1Q Tesla deliveries could be mushy however these numbers have been dangerous,” Ives wrote. “We aren’t going to have a look at these numbers with rose coloured glasses…they have been a catastrophe on each metric. Refresh points however model disaster key. The time has come for Musk…fork within the street second for Tesla.”

Longtime investor Ross Gerber, who not too long ago modified his stance to bearish, stated on X that “the model is damaged and will not be fixable,” and added in a later submit that “Tesla wants an actual CEO.”

Tesla has been mired in political backlash since Musk took on a job with DOGE. The carmaker has been the goal of a boycott and protest motion calling for Tesla homeowners to promote their autos and inventory. There have additionally been widespread vandalism incidents, some going so far as involving arson and gunfire.

Whereas Qazi appeared to disagree that backlash over Musk has broken Tesla’s model, he echoed the sentiment that the stakes are excessive for Tesla in the intervening time — and the corporate must discover a solution to return to progress in its automotive enterprise.

“If Tesla cannot develop gross sales in 2025 with their greatest set of merchandise ever, that’s an epic advertising failure,” Qazi added in a submit on X about Tesla’s upcoming robotaxi service launch, which Musk has stated to count on in June.

Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Whereas Tesla shares dipped about 4% following the outcomes, the inventory rebounded over 5% after Politico reported that President Donald Trump has instructed his interior circle that Musk could be leaving his function in DOGE within the coming weeks. (White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed again on the story in a submit on X and stated that Musk would not be departing till his work is full.)

“Epic buying and selling for me. love this,” Qazi posted alongside a screenshot of Tesla’s inventory improve.

Qazi, who didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, appeared to melt his stance on the gross sales report within the hours after BI reached out.

“Really Tesla deliveries do not look that dangerous once you dig in slightly bit,” Qazi wrote on X. “Tesla seems to have bought just about every thing they may make in Q1.”