Tesla US sales drop to nearly 4-year low in November despite launch of cheaper versions

Tesla's U.S. sales dropped to a near four-year low in November, despite the automaker's rollout of new, cheaper versions of its best-selling electric vehicles, estimates from Cox Automotive given exclusively to Reuters showed on Thursday.

Making a success of the more affordable variants, called Standard, is important for Tesla and a test of its strategy for how to keep selling cars and bring in revenue as it transitions to making robotaxis and building humanoid robots, which are the core reasons investors value the company at $1.4 trillion.

EV sales have taken a hit broadly since the end of September when the Trump administration ended $7,500 federal tax credits. To combat the fall in demand, Tesla in October launched stripped-down versions of its Model Y SUV and Model 3 compact sedan, priced about $5,000 below the previous base models.

Demand for Standard versions was expected to support sales in November, but the company's total sales fell nearly 23% to 39,800 vehicles from 51,513 a year earlier and were the lowest since January 2022, according to the data from Cox, which tracks sales across the industry.