DANIEL LEVI FROM TECH STARTUPS
“According to Tesla’s own figures, the electric automaker produced 46,561 more vehicles than it delivered to customers during the first quarter of 2024.”
Last month, we wrote about Tesla after it laid off over 10% of its global workforce, sparking speculation about the state of the world’s leading electric car company. It now appears we have some answers. According to a report by Jalopnik, a trusted automotive news outlet, Tesla has resorted to leasing abandoned mall parking lots to store thousands of its unsold electric vehicles.
Citing Tesla’s own figures, Jalopnik reported that Tesla “produced 46,561 more vehicles than it delivered to customers during the first quarter of 2024.” So where are all these unsold cars going?
Per Jalopnik’s report, abandoned parking “lots full of Tesla vehicles are becoming impossible to ignore” as the company struggles to sell enough cars and trucks to match its current rate of production.
For example, the Chesterfield Mall, located approximately 20 miles west of St. Louis, has become an overflow lot for unsold Tesla cars. This move not only highlights the current predicament of American retail but also underscores the impending transformation of the mall. Scheduled for demolition to make way for a $2 billion mixed-use development, the mall stands as a symbol of evolving urban landscapes. The Staenberg Group, the mall’s owner, is maximizing revenue until the remaining tenants vacate by August 31. Tim Lowe, a senior vice president at the Staenberg Group, told local station KTVI:
“We put a plan together to try and create alternate uses that would kind be able to use some of the remaining life left in the mall before we tear it down. One of those uses was allowing people to use the parking lot for different things.”
“One of our users happens to be Tesla, who does have a dealership in the [Chesterfield] Valley, but does not have enough capacity at the dealership to park all of the cars they are bringing in. So they are renting space within the parking lot to store their cars.”
Meanwhile, the news of unsold inventory comes following Tesla’s first quarterly decline in four years, alongside the delivery of 386,810 vehicles in the first quarter, significantly below the Bloomberg consensus of 449,000.
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN TECH STARTUPS
