Tesla hit another big pothole on April 2nd, when it reported that it had delivered fewer than 390,000 cars in the first quarter. That was down by 8.5% from a year ago—and considerably worse than already cautious Wall Street analysts were expecting. Tesla’s market value has slumped by a third this year, to less than $550bn. That is still more than any other carmaker but a far cry from the $1.2trn it was worth in 2021. Its boss, Elon Musk, is now only the world’s third-richest man.
It was all meant to be different. Making money from internal combustion engines, whose thousands of moving parts drove up complexity and costs, required carmakers to churn out large volumes. In contrast, the new economics of battery power was supposed to bring down barriers to entry.
The electric insurgents are waking up to the reality. Their first step is to look downmarket. On March 7th Rivian announced three less expensive models that will start arriving in 2026. Last year Xpeng signed a deal with Didi Global, a Chinese ride-hailing giant, to make cheaper cars and forged a partnership with Volkswagen to make mass-markets for China. Nio plans to launch two affordable sub-brands, Alps and Firefly.