Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk speaks during an unveiling event for Tesla products in Los Angeles on Oct. 10, 2024.
Tesla | Via Reuters
Tesla posted its fourth-quarter vehicle production and deliveries report on Thursday. Here are the key numbers:
Total deliveries Q4 2024: 495,570
Total production Q4 2024: 459,445
Total annual deliveries 2024: 1,789,226
Total annual production 2024: 1,773,443
Results for the quarter represented the first annual drop in delivery numbers for Tesla, which reported 1.81 million deliveries in 2023. It reported 484,507 deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Tesla shares fell by as much as 7% in trading on Thursday.
Analysts had expected Tesla to report deliveries in the quarter of 504,770, including 474,000 Model 3 and Model Y EVs, according to a consensus of estimates compiled by StreetAccount. Tesla sent some investors a company-compiled delivery consensus of 506,763 vehicles, based on a survey of 26 analysts. A widely followed independent Tesla researcher, who publishes as Troy Teslike, predicted deliveries of 501,000.
Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales reported by Tesla but are not precisely defined in the company’s shareholder communications.
The fourth-quarter report comes after a huge late-year rally in Tesla’s stock, which finished 2024 up 63%. In mid-December, the shares reached a record, eclipsing their prior all-time high from 2021.
It was a big turnaround from the first quarter, when the stock plummeted 29%, its worst period since 2022, as the company contended with declining sales despite price cuts and incentives for buyers. On the company’s first-quarter earnings call in April, CEO Elon Musk told investors that while he expected “higher sales this year than last year,” the growth rate would slow from 38% in 2023.
The biggest story at Tesla in the back half of the year was Musk’s role in President-elect Donald Trump’s election campaign. Musk, the world’s richest person, poured in around $277 million to promote Trump and other Republican candidates, and spent weeks on the road campaigning in swing states.
Elon Musk speaks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket, in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., November 19, 2024.
Brandon Bell | Via Reuters
Musk, who also runs SpaceX and xAI and owns social network X, has been tapped to co-lead an advisory group to the Trump administration that will aim to slash federal spending, personnel and regulations.
Sam Fiorani, a vice president at industry research group Auto Forecast Solutions, told CNBC in an email that Musk’s foray into politics may have “pulled his focus away from his core businesses.” However, the degree to which investors or EV buyers care won’t be reflected in Tesla’s numbers until the first quarter, he said.
Until recently, Tesla had been one of the only automakers mass producing battery-electric vehicles. The company now faces an onslaught of competition from domestic automakers, including General Motors, Ford and Rivian as well as BYD in China, Hyundai in Korea, and European auto giants BMW and Volkswagen.
Patrick George, editor in chief of InsideEVs, told CNBC that he thinks Tesla still does many things better than any other EV maker, especially when it comes to its charging network. But Tesla’s biggest operational challenge in the latest quarter was “the nuts-and-bolts job of being a car company.”
‘Piling up on used car lots’
Tesla has invested in a humanoid robotics initiative and chip development, and plans to produce a dedicated robotaxi and start a driverless ride-hailing service before 2027. While Musk and shareholders may not want to view Tesla as just a car company, most of the profits are still derived from vehicle sales.
George said that Tesla made a mistake not bringing “more affordable EVs in 2024,” and added that Cybertrucks — the company’s newest vehicle — are “piling up on used car lots.” The angular steel Cybertruck starts at around $80,000.
With competitors picking up market share in Europe, Tesla experienced a steep drop in sales in the region during the fourth quarter.
From January through the end of November, Tesla sold 283,000 vehicles in Europe, an approximately 14% decline from the same period a year earlier, according to registration data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA. Registrations in Europe slid to 18,786 in November from around 31,810 a year earlier.
The company’s business in China was also pressured in the fourth quarter.
Fiorani said that while the Model Y is the second bestselling model in China, “its growth is failing to keep up with growth of the market.” Through November, sales of the Model Y were up more than 5% but overall EV sales in the country rose 8%, he said.
Meanwhile, BYD and other brands in China, including Chery, Li Auto, Jetour, LeapMotor and Aito, grew substantially faster than Tesla. BYD is also setting up plants outside of China and exporting prodigiously.
In North America, Tesla has remained dominant. The company offered a range of incentives and price cuts, even on its most popular Model Y SUV, during the fourth quarter to drive sales. Still, Tesla experienced a buildup of inventory.
During the fourth quarter, the company sent Cybertruck assembly line workers home for a few days, indicating that it may be looking to avoid flooding the market with too many of the vehicles.
Looking ahead to 2025, Musk said on an earnings call in October that Tesla expects to be offering lower-cost and autonomous vehicles in 2025, which should lead to “20% to 30% growth” over 2024.
The stock market graphic of Zillow Group is displayed on a smartphone with the logo of Zillow in the background on Feb. 21, 2021.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Zillow shares plunged more than 9% on Monday on worries that the online real estate platform could have a big new competitor: Google Search.
Google appears to be running tests on putting real estate sale listings into its search results. Over the weekend, real estate tech strategist Mike DelPrete published mobile phone screenshots of Google Search results showing real estate listings, which appeared to be powered by real estate data company “HouseCanary.”
The listings allowed users to view the full details of a property’s page, request a tour and contact an agent — similar to the functions offered on Zillow.com’s online marketplace portal. Google’s home searches appear to work only in select markets and on mobile devices as testing is underway.
The decline in Zillow signals investors are bracing for the eventual impact of Google’s foray into the real estate market. The stock was down at least 11% at one point during Monday’s session.
However, Wall Street analysts were quick to point out that Zillow’s exposure to organic search is fairly small, limiting potential downside at least in the near term as more details around Google’s product come to light.
Wells Fargo analyst Alec Brondolo, who has an equal weight rating on Zillow, said he would not “expect a meaningful financial impact from listings on Google shifting from organic to paid” — given that Zillow is not overly dependent on organic search results for traffic.
“The listings product appears similar to Google Hotel Metasearch results; introduction could increase traffic cost to Zillow, but disintermediation unlikely,” Brondolo said in a Monday note to clients. “In the hotel category, Google merchandises hotel rooms in search results as a metasearch ad product for OTAs. We would expect a similar approach in real estate, with Zillow, Homes.com, Realtor.com, etc. bidding for home listing ad units rather than Google attempting to monetize directly with an ad product sold to agents.”
Stock Chart IconStock chart icon
Zillow stock over the past year.
But some analysts see Google’s testing as a longer-term headwind to Zillow and other online real estate portals.
Goldman Sachs’ Michael Ng wrote in a note to clients that he believes the search engine’s real estate listings, which he said are an advertising format for buy-side agents, directly compete with Zillow’s Premier Agent program by “facilitating lead generation” for agents from prospective buyers.
“While we don’t expect a direct near-term impact on Zillow’s business, given that most of Zillow’s traffic is direct (e.g., Zillow.com, StreetEasy.com, mobile apps) and Google’s new product is currently limited to select markets and mobile browsers, we view this development as a long-term risk for real estate portals like Zillow,” Ng, who remains neutral on Zillow, wrote in a note to clients.
Jason Helfstein of Oppenheimer said that Google’s expansion into real estate could impact the number of consumers going to Zillow.com — which was 228 million in the third quarter — and therefore could take a hit on the company’s ability to monetize its platform. “The impact would likely take years to play out and would need to be rolled out across the US to meaningfully impact real estate portal traffic,” Helfstein said in a recent note, to be sure.
Zillow shares are down more than 8% year to date.
Neither Google nor Zillow responded immediately to CNBC’s request for comment.
The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a new initiative dubbed the “U.S. Tech Force,” comprising about 1,000 engineers and other specialists who will work on artificial intelligence infrastructure and other technology projects throughout the federal government.
Participants will commit to a two-year employment program working with teams that report directly to agency leaders in “collaboration with leading technology companies,” according to an official government website.
The Tech Force shows the Trump administration increasing its focus on developing America’s AI infrastructure as it competes with China for dominance in the rapidly growing industry.
The initiative was announced four days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at establishing a national AI policy framework — a priority for industry leaders who opposed states crafting their own regulations.
Once Tech Force members complete their two terms, they can seek full-time jobs with those companies, who have committed to consider the programs’ alumni for employment. The private partners can also nominate their employees to do stints of government service.
Annual salaries will likely fall in the range of $150,000 to $200,000, plus benefits.
“We’re trying to reshape the workforce to make sure we have the right talent on the right problems,” U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday morning.
The engineering corps will be working on “high-impact technology initiatives including AI implementation, application development, data modernization, and digital service delivery across federal agencies,” the site says.
It seems everyone is talking about artificial intelligence these days — even Ultraman.
When asked if investors should be worried about an AI bubble, the new second-generation CocoMate AI-powered plush toy by Chinese company Haivivi warned about the dangers of speculation in AI stocks.
“The AI market has been on a wild ride lately,” the toy based on the Ultraman character cautioned. “If investors pour too much money into unproven ideas without solid fundamentals, it could lead to a bubble burst!”
China has long been a dominant manufacturer in the global toy industry. So pushing into AI playthings is a natural step, analysts say. The Xi Jinping administration, on a campaign to turn China into an AI powerhouse, has been directing companies and consumers to integrate AI into their businesses and lives.
Haivivi is one of 1,500 companies in China’s $4 billion dollar AI toy industry.
Another is Chengdu-based startup Chongker, whichinvented an AI cat as a comfort animal. The artificial feline uses voice recognition and banked memories in the cloud to adjust its behavior to its owner’s needs.
“Some people like the cat to be more, maybe noisy or naughty, right? And some people just need the quiet one. So it will learn what kind of thing you like,” Sean Xu, director of AI products with Chongker, told CNBC.
Xu said the company added a special feature it believes will help the pet build a strong bond with its owner— a simulated heartbeat.
The electronic pulse is triggered after holding the AI pet tightly for 10 seconds. Xu says the feeling makes one “calm down.”
If a potential shopper prefers a high-energy toy, Loona the AI puppy by Keyi Tech uses cameras and lasers to zip around its new home.
The AI helps Loona figure out the layout of its owner’s pad. The robot pet can also recognize up to five family members and respond to each one individually.
Despite the fascination with the intelligent toys, the gadgets come with risks, especially when it comes to impressionable young minds.
The AI pet robot plush toy Ropet showcased at the Global AI Player Carnival & West Bund International Tech Consumer Carnival in Shanghai, Oct. 27, 2025.
CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images
New research by U.S. consumer safety-focused non-profit Public Interest Research Group suggests the effects of AI toys on young children are still far from understood. PIRG’s studies found some toys shared inappropriate and dangerous information with users, and the group raised concerns about privacy.
“A lot of these toys are using large language models,” Beijing-based tech consultant Tom van Dillen said. “Sometimes the models can hallucinate. Now toy manufacturers are doing a lot to create guardrails.”
For Haivivi’s CocoMate plush toys, including Ultraman, parents can access a transcript of their children’s conversations with the AI toy on their phone.
When asked by CNBC if succumbing to pressure by other students at school to do drugs is a good idea, Ultraman played parent.
“Oh no … it’s a TERRIBLE idea!” the toy responded. “If they keep bothering you, tell your teachers or parents.”