Dive Brief:

• Electric vehicle maker Tesla’s net income slid to $409 million for its first quarter ended March 31, a 71% drop from the $1.4 billion reported for the prior year period, according to quarterly results reported Tuesday.
• The plummet comes as the Austin, Texas-based EV maker faces rising competition in key overseas markets such as Europe, as well as continuing effects related to the ongoing trade war sparked by President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff strategy. Tariffs will have “various impacts” on Tesla’s business, CFO Vaibhav Taneja said during the Tuesday earnings call, reiterating previous warnings made in the beginning of the year by the finance chief.
• Though the company has been “on a journey of regionalization” for years, giving it somewhat of an edge in responding to tariffs, the company is not immune: certain tariffs set to be imposed on the automotive space, including on auto parts from countries including Mexico and Canada, “will have an impact on profitability,” Taneja said.

Dive Insight:

The EV maker also reported a 9% drop in total revenue for Q1 2025, with automotive revenues dropping about 20% to $13.9 billion from approximately $17.4 billion in the prior year period, according to its earnings report.

The lukewarm earnings came after Tesla reported a 13% drop in vehicle deliveries at the top of the month, as the ongoing tariff tug-of-war between the U.S. and key trade partners, including Europe and China, hurt global sales.  

On the Tuesday earnings call, Taneja attributed the drop in deliveries to the EV maker’s efforts to update its factories, which Tesla had previously announced would affect production, Taneja said.

“Additionally, the negative impact of vandalism and unwanted hostility towards our brand and our people had an impact in certain markets,” the CFO said. Despite the drop, however, the company sold out its legacy Model Y in the U.S., China, and certain other markets, he said Tuesday.

Taneja is one among several Tesla executives who have made multiple sales of company stock in recent months, with the finance chief selling shares with an aggregate market value of $957,720 — his third stock sale in as many months — shortly after the company reported its vehicle delivery figures, CFO Dive previously reported.

The offloading of stock by Taneja and other executives — including Kimbal Musk, the brother of CEO Elon Musk — comes as the EV maker’s stock value has continued to wobble, losing much of a post-election boost it had received related to Elon Musk’s political activities inside of the Trump administration at the Department of Government Efficiency.

Despite the company’s profit plunge, Tesla’s stock rose following its Tuesday earnings report after Elon Musk said he would allocate less time to the Department of Government Efficiency during the company’s earnings call.

In his opening remarks, Musk noted the “blowback” related to his time with DOGE, which has sparked protests against both his political activities and related to his leadership of the EV maker. On Tuesday, for example, protesters flew a banner above the Austin, Texas capital building which read “Save Tesla. Fire Musk.” Federal officials, meanwhile, have arrested and charged multiple individuals with vandalism against Tesla vehicles and showrooms, according to a recent report by Forbes. Last week, the Justice Department arrested a Kansas City resident with federal charges related to arson at a Tesla business in the city. 

Musk on Tuesday argued the “real reason” behind such responses to his political activities was “that those receiving the waste and fraud wish to continue receiving it.”

The department has made “a lot of progress in addressing waste and fraud,” he said. “The natural blowback from that is those who were receiving the wasteful dollars and the fortunate dollars will try to attack me and DOGE team and anything associated with me.”

However, Musk also said that starting next month, his time at the department is likely to “drop significantly.”

“I think I'll continue to spend a day or two per week on government matters for as long as the President would like me to do so and as long as it is useful,” he said. “But starting next month, I'll be allocating probably more of my time to Tesla now that the major work of establishing the Department of Government Efficiency is done.”

The CEO also expressed optimism about the future prospects of the EV maker, noting that Tesla has “actually been through many near-death experiences,” Musk said. “We were probably on the ragged edge of death at least on maybe a dozen times. It's been so many times. This is not one of those times. We're not on the ragged edge of death, not even close.”