Stock Market Today, April 2: Tesla Falls After Vehicle Deliveries Miss Estimates

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), a leading maker of electric vehicles and energy storage solutions, closed Thursday at $360.56, down 5.43%, after investors reacted to weaker-than-expected first-quarter delivery figures. The stock moved lower after Q1 2026 deliveries of 358,023 vehicles missed estimates. Trading volume reached 76.2 million shares, nearly 24% above its three-month average of 61.6 million shares. Tesla IPO'd in 2010 and has grown 22,577% since going public.

How the markets moved today

The broader markets ended Thursday modestly higher, with the S&P 500 inching up 0.09% to 6,582 and the Nasdaq Composite adding 0.18% to finish at 21,879. Within automotive manufacturing, industry peers showed mixed trading as Ford Motor Company closed at $11.59 (-0.77%), while General Motors ended at $72.54 (-3.33%), underscoring pressure across legacy and EV-focused carmakers.

What this means for investors

Tesla’s Q1 deliveries of 358,023 vehicles came in slightly below analysts’ expectations for 365,000 EVs, helping to spur today’s sell-off. While this figure is 6% higher than Q1 last year, it was down 14% sequentially from Q4 2025. However, the more worrying figure, in my opinion, came from its battery energy storage deployments of 8.8 gigawatt hours. This was a 15% drop from Q1 the previous year and a painful 38% decline from the record-breaking 14.2 GWh it had set in Q4 last year.

As Tesla shifts its primary focus from EVs to energy storage, Optimus robots, and Cybercabs, investors and analysts alike were hoping to see stronger results from its burgeoning energy storage unit.

Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.