Tesla shares rose more than 12 percent after it pledged to bring forward the launch of “more affordable” cars.
The electric car maker said production could begin this year, as the group led by tech billionaire Elon Musk suffered its biggest revenue drop in more than a decade due to stagnating demand.
On Tuesday it recorded sales of £17bn for the three months to the end of March, a 9 per cent drop from a year earlier and the biggest drop since 2012.
Profits fell 86 per cent to £910m compared to £6.4bn a year ago.
But shares in the world’s most valuable automaker rose 11.3 percent yesterday as investors pinned their hopes on lower-cost engines.
Slowing demand: Tesla said production of more affordable models could begin this year
Tesla said it has “updated our future vehicle lineup to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of our previously communicated start of production in the second half of 2025.”
Musk said this meant production would begin “in early 2025, if not later this year.”
But the billionaire remained tight-lipped on specific details about these “more affordable” vehicles, although reports suggested they would cost £20,000 or less.
Tesla cars cost between £55,000 and more than £130,000, but earlier this month it revealed its first year-on-year drop in sales since 2020.
It sold 386,810 vehicles in the three months to the end of March, down 9 percent from the same period in 2023, and well below Wall Street expectations of 454,000.
Musk also plans to lay off 10 percent of staff, which would result in the loss of 14,000 jobs.