Tesla Misses on Q1 Revenues and Earnings – Similarweb Data Shows Why 

After an initial boost in January, further price cuts have not driven web traffic or conversion, showing Tesla is not getting the demand boost it wants

Starting on January 13, Tesla has cut prices six times this year, with mixed results. The first price cut came at the same time as tax incentives kicked back in, and led to a boost in web traffic and converted visits. Subsequent price cuts have had much less of an impact. The company reported Q1 earnings after market close on April 19 and missed on both revenues and profits.

Key takeaways

• Despite price cuts of up to 11% on Model 3 and 20% on Model Y, in March 2023 US web traffic to Tesla.com was down 0.3% from the prior year, indicating that the price cuts are not driving consumer excitement.
• After getting a spike in January and February after initial price cuts, converted visits in the US  for Model 3 and Y have come down sharply, and in March 2023 were down 38% for Model 3 and down 28% for Model Y.
• In the past 28 days (through 4/18) Tesla traffic has been relatively stable, showing that price cuts are not driving increased excitement among potential buyers.

Web traffic got a boost in January and February, but March 2023 traffic dropped

The chart below shows monthly visits in the US to Tesla.com since January 2022 and highlights the problem the company is having. You can see a nice boost in January 2023 web traffic, which rose 49% year over year to 12.9 million visitors. February saw an even bigger boost in a seasonally weak month, rising 49% to 9.9 million visitors. However, March saw web traffic fall 0.3%, despite multiple price cuts leading up to the final month in Q1.

If price cuts were resonating, you would expect March traffic to see some spike from the prior year. So it seems after an initial boost from price cuts, excitement for visiting Tesla to prospectively buy a vehicle has died down. Given the extent of the price cuts, Tesla may have sacrificed profit levels without getting a boost in sales in return.

Converted visits up in Jan. and Feb, but saw a steep March decline

Converted visits are visits to a company’s website that leads to a sale. You can see converted visits for Tesla models 3 and Y over the past 27 months below. Model Y got a huge spike in January, rising 440% year-over-year, but Model 3 saw a 3% lower converted visits in January. February saw Model Y grow 154% while Model 3 got a boost of 43%. However, converted visits fell off a cliff in March, falling 28% for Model Y and 38% for Model 3.

The last 28 days show traffic starting Q2 in a lackluster manner

The chart below shows Tesla web traffic over the past 28 days, through April 18, and you can see several spikes in visits on days when Tesla announced price cuts, but those spikes quickly revert to normal levels.

We can’t yet see traffic around the April 19 price cut, but the prior cut of April 7 did spur additional traffic, but only for a couple of days after the announcement. Traffic on April 7 spiked 69% from the prior day, but March 8 dropped 33% from April 7 and March 9 declined a further 7%.

Tesla is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TSLA.

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Report By: Jim Corridore, Senior Insights Manager

Methodology

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by Jim Corridore

Senior Analyst

Jim provides insights across multiple sectors. With 30 years on Wall Street and numerous awards for stock-picking, he is a SUNY Albany graduate.