Tesla's car business isn't really in the driver's seat

The majority of the EV maker's market cap rides on hope for robotaxis, robots and AI

- Dan Gallagher

Tesla sold fewer cars in 2024 than it did the year before. Yet the company is worth about 53% more now. Don't think about it too hard. Car sales aren't really what the company's value is based on anymore.

The revved-up EV maker appeared to start the new year off on a bum note Thursday, with its stock taking a hit following disappointing vehicle delivery numbers for the fourth quarter. Tesla said it delivered 495,570 vehicles for the period, which was about 3% shy of the 512,300 deliveries projected by analysts, according to consensus estimates from Visible Alpha. The fourth-quarter results brought Tesla's deliveries for the full year to 1.79 million, which was down from the 1.81 million vehicles delivered in 2023, and the first annual sales drop the company has ever seen, according to Visible Alpha data.