39,000 Reasons to Consider Selling Tesla Stock Here
Tesla’s (TSLA) sales in the U.S. sank 23% in November versus the same period a year earlier to 39,800, Cox Automotive estimated. Moreover, the automaker has not sold so few EVs in a single month in America since 2022.
The decline was largely caused by the expiration of the EV tax credits in September. The latter event caused many consumers to rush to buy EVs in the third quarter, resulting in a big slump in Q4. Additionally, EV sales likely received a big boost in November 2024 following the re-election of President Donald Trump, as many believed that he would seek to roll back pro-EV policies.
About Tesla
The largest seller of electric vehicles in the U.S. by a wide margin, Tesla delivered 1.2 million EVs globally in the first three quarters of 2025. Meanwhile, the automaker, according to crowdsourced estimates (Tesla has not given an official number), had 29 robotaxis operating in Austin, Texas, and 106 robotaxis in service in San Francisco as of Dec. 2.
Tesla has a very high market capitalization of $1.526 trillion, while its trailing price-earnings ratio is a gargantuan 308 times. In the third quarter of 2025, it generated sales of $28 billion, up from $25.18 billion during the same period a year earlier. However, its earnings per share from continuing operations sank to 43 cents from 68 cents.
Tesla’s Containment Strategy May Not Be Working Well
In October, in an effort to minimize the damage from the expiration of the tax credits, Tesla launched cheaper models of its two most popular EVs in the U.S.: the Model Y and the Model 3. The new offerings are about $5,000 less expensive than the previous base models of the Model Y and the Model 3.
The fact that Tesla’s sales tumbled 23% year-over-year (YoY) despite this move indicates that the demand for the firm’s EVs could remain stunted over the longer term despite its containment strategy. And given the fact that its average sales price in the U.S. will likely drop meaningfully as a result of the company's new approach, its overall profit margins could fall significantly.
Tesla’s Other Problems
Globally, Tesla delivered 1.2 million EVs in the first three quarters of 2025, well below the 1.8 million that it handed over in the first three quarters of 2024. And at this point only two of Tesla's robotaxis are reportedly operating without supervision from human staff. And as I reported previously, “Alphabet’s (GOOG) Waymo is way ahead of Tesla in the robotaxi race, as Waymo has deployed about 1,500 robotaxis and has operations in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Greater San Francisco. Waymo also has an alliance with Uber (UBER) in Austin and Atlanta, and it does not generally use any human safety monitors.”
And more competition is on the way for TSLA on the autonomous front as Rivian (RIVN) says that it intends to introduce “full eyes-off-the-road self-driving capability” at the end of next year. Even more ominous for Tesla is Rivian’s intention to charge much less than Tesla for its service. Although Rivian’s system does not appear to be much different than Tesla’s offering, Rivian will charge a one-time fee of $2,500 or $49.99 per month, way below Tesla's $8,000 or $99 per month.
Finally, one of Tesla’s humanoid Optimus robots, whose autonomous abilities have been touted by Musk, recently fell over after making a motion similar to a person taking off his or her headset. The incident led a number of individuals to contend that the robot was being controlled by remote human operators. What's more, according to Slashgear, Optimus, “still hasn't reached a stage where it can handle tasks like serving drinks, let alone complex factory or domestic chores.”
On the date of publication, Larry Ramer had a position in: RIVN. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com
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