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The Verge
18 minutes ago
- The Verge
Tesla reports 14 percent drop in second-quarter vehicle deliveries
Tesla sales hit a new low, with the company reporting a 14 percent drop in second-quarter vehicle deliveries compared to a year ago. The company said that it produced a total of 410,244 vehicles between April–June of this year, including 396,835 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as well as 13,409 'other vehicles' like the Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck. That represents a minor 0.1 percent drop compared to the second quarter of 2024, when the company produced 410,831 vehicles. Tesla also said that it delivered a total of 384,122 vehicles, including 373,728 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as well as 10,394 other vehicles — a 14 percent decline compared to the second quarter of 2024, when it delivered 443,956 vehicles. (For a direct-to-consumer company like Tesla, deliveries are a proxy for sales.) Expectations were pretty grim for this quarter, with UBS predicting an 18 percent decrease in deliveries year over year, and Barclay estimating 375,000 vehicles sold. Tesla may have outperformed these expectations, but the company is still on a steady decline since reporting its first year-over-year sales drop since 2020 last year. It was another troubling sign for the once high-flying EV company as it continues to struggle with rising competition, stagnant demand for electric vehicles, and a growing backlash against Elon Musk's political activities within President Donald Trump's administration. The Tesla Takedown protest movement, which began earlier this year, has targeted hundreds of Tesla dealerships around the world in an effort to erode the company's sales even further. Last month, Musk announced that he was stepping away from his position at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) amid a bitter feud with Trump — but insisted that DOGE's controversial cost-cutting efforts would continue. Still, his reputation in the US has plummeted, with a majority of people saying they have a negative view of him. His claims to have saved the government a trillion dollars by slashing 'waste, fraud, and abuse' seem to have been mostly overstated. There were other worrying signs ahead of the Q2 report. Tesla's sales in Europe have been in a serious slump with five straight consecutive months of decline, according to registration data from the European Union. In China, the company's sales continue to decrease as domestic brands like BYD grab more market share. (Tesla does not break out sales regionally, so registration data from Europe and China are watched closely.) During Q1, Tesla attributed some of the drop in sales to design and production changes for the newly refreshed Model Y. But now the revamped EV is widely available, and the automaker's numbers are still going in the wrong direction. There's been inner turmoil at Tesla, too. Last week, Omead Afshar, Tesla's VP of manufacturing and a longtime Musk ally, left the company — with some reports suggesting he was fired. His departure follows that of Milan Kovac, head of the Optimus humanoid robot project, earlier this month. The launch of Tesla's long-delayed robotaxi service was also a bit of a bust. Instead of the 'unsupervised' vehicles that Musk had promised at the beginning of this year, the robotaxis featured Tesla-employed safety monitors in the front passenger seat. Several videos of the service in action showed significant safety lapses, including a robotaxi driving over the double yellow line into the opposite lane of traffic and braking hard in the middle of the road for no reason.
CNBC
29 minutes ago
- CNBC
Microsoft laying off about 9,000 employees in latest round of cuts
Microsoft said Wednesday that it will lay off about 9,000 employees. The move will affect less than 4% of its global workforce across different teams, geographies and levels of experience, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The announcement comes on the second day of Microsoft's 2026 fiscal year. Executives at the Redmond, Washington-based company typically unveil reorganizations at the time of the new fiscal year. "We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email. Microsoft has held several rounds of layoffs already this calendar year. In January, it cut less than 1% of headcount based on performance. The 50-year-old software company slashed over 6,000 jobs in May and then at least 300 more in June. As of June 2024 it employed 228,000 people. In 2023, it laid off 10,000. Perhaps the largest culling of Microsoft workers came in 2014, when the company eliminated 18,000 after acquiring Nokia's devices and services business. As was the case with the May layoffs, Microsoft is looking to reduce the number of layers of managers that stand between individual contributors and top executives, the person said. Microsoft reported nearly $26 billion in net income on $70 billion in revenue for the March quarter. The numbers were well ahead of Wall Street's consensus, keeping Microsoft ranked as one of the most profitable companies in the S&P 500 index, according to data compiled by FactSet. Executives called for about 14% year-over-year revenue growth in the June quarter, thanks to expected expansion in Azure cloud services and corporate productivity software subscriptions. Autodesk, Chegg and CrowdStrike are among the other software providers that have slimmed down in 2025. Earlier on Wednesday, Payroll processing company ADP said the U.S. private sector lost 33,000 jobs in June. Economists polled by Dow Jones had predicted an increase of 100,000.
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
A bare-bones deal is Europe's best hope in trade talks with the U.S., sources say
The clock is ticking in trade talks between Washington and the European Union, with European officials now saying their best hope is striking a "political" deal before a key July 9 deadline, three sources told CNBC. Concrete details of such a trade arrangement would have to be worked out at a later time. "The U.S. proposal from last week is aimed at an agreement in principle," one EU official, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the talks, told CNBC, adding that this agreement in principle would then "be negotiated out into a proper trade agreement at a later stage." Previously close allies, the U.S. and EU have had a fractious relationship amid disagreements over trade and support for embattled Ukraine in the months since the start of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term. Tensions escalated in early April, when White House announced a spate of reciprocal tariffs against most global trade partners, including a 20% levy on the EU. All such duties have been temporarily reduced until July 9 to facilitate talks. The U.S. sent a new proposal to the EU's negotiating team last week. European negotiators are having face-to-face talks with their American counterparts later this week with the view to get a deal done in the coming days. Total bilateral trade in goods between the EU and the U.S. accounted for 851 billion euros ($1 trillion) in 2023, according to figures from the European Commission. European officials expect a new update on the negotiations Friday, but the situation is fluid. On Monday, European ambassadors had conversations about the state of play in the trade negotiations. Lithuania's Minister of Finance Rimantas Šadžius told CNBC on Wednesday that he is "slightly optimistic" there will be a trade compromise between both sided of the Atlantic. Despite this, sources told CNBC that, despite efforts to reach a trade compromise, the EU is preparing for any possible outcomes, including the return of reciprocal tariffs. "The general sense is that in the coming days and weeks, all outcomes, ranging from a successful deal on a framework agreement all the way to higher US tariffs with additional sectors, are still possible," the same EU official told CNBC. This sentiment was also shared by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last Friday. "We are ready for a deal. At the same time, we are preparing for the possibility that no satisfactory agreement is reached," she said at a press conference. The European Commission was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC Wednesday about an update to the talks. Another EU official, also speaking to CNBC on the condition of anonymity, said there is an awareness in Brussels that it is almost impossible to return to the trade relationship that the EU and U.S. enjoyed before the April 2 announcement of reciprocal tariffs. A third EU official, who also chose to speak anonymously, told CNBC that there is a risk that the outcome of the talks will be an "asymmetrical" deal, under which the EU will not escape some additional U.S. levies. Nonetheless, the bloc is looking to get concessions in critical areas for its economy, including automotive, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, all three sources confirmed. The first EU official added that some member states will only agree to a deal in principle if there is a commitment from the Trump administration to "upfront tariff relief." The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, negotiates trade with other parts of the world, but its proposals and position reflects the thinking of the 27 capitals.
