Price cuts and purchasing incentives have ruined Tesla’s balance sheet. The electric car pioneer reported a gross profit margin of 17.6 percent for the three months to December after the market closed on Wednesday. A year ago it was 23.8 percent and in the previous quarter it was 17.9 percent. Analysts were currently expecting 18.3 percent.
The group also disappointed in terms of sales. Revenues rose by three percent to $25.2 billion in the fourth quarter. But that was the lowest growth in more than three years and was below experts’ estimates of 25.6 billion. Tesla’s share price fell by five percent after hours.
The company cut prices last year. The most popular Model Y in the USA cost around 26 percent less than before. However, Tesla achieved its goal of 1.8 million vehicles delivered for the full year. The company did not provide any delivery forecast for the current year. Analysts were based on an estimate of around 2.1 million vehicles. However, Tesla only stated that deliveries would probably grow more slowly than last year.
CEO Elon Musk had meanwhile warned that demand would be adversely affected by high interest rates. In the fourth quarter, Tesla had to give up its place as the leading electric vehicle manufacturer by sales figures to China’s BYD.