A Tesla car is displayed at the third China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) in Haikou, capital city of south China's Hainan Province, April 11, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

Top U.S. electric automaker Tesla Inc. on Tuesday reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2024 with total revenue down 9 percent year over year to 21.3 billion U.S. dollars.

The electric vehicle company reported total gross profit of 3.70 billion dollars in the quarter, a year-over-year 18 percent decline, while its earnings of 45 cents a share plummeted from 85 cents a year ago.

The company's quarterly net income attributable to common stockholders (GAAP) declined to 1.13 billion dollars, a 55 percent drop year over year.

The company's total quarterly deliveries for Q1 2024 were 386,810, falling below the analysts' estimates.

Its total production amounts to 433,371 in the quarter, showing a decline of 1.7 percent year over year and 12.5 percent sequentially for Tesla.

Tesla reported that it produced 412,376 Model 3/Y cars and delivered 369,783. It produced 20,995 of its other models and delivered 17,027.

Tesla had minus 2.53 billion U.S. dollars in free cash flow at the end of the first quarter, down 674 percent year over year.

Production at China's Gigafactory Shanghai was down sequentially due to seasonality and planned shutdowns around Chinese New Year in the first quarter. Demand typically improves throughout the year, the company said, adding that "As the company enters new markets, such as Chile, many of them will be supplied from Gigafactory Shanghai."

"We experienced numerous challenges in Q1, from the Red Sea conflict and the arson attack at Gigafactory Berlin, to the gradual ramp of the updated Model 3 in Fremont. Excluding Cybertruck and unscheduled downtime, our COGS4 per unit declined sequentially, driven primarily by lower raw material costs," the company said.

"Global EV sales continue to be under pressure as many carmakers prioritize hybrids over EVs. While positive for our regulatory credits business, we prefer the industry to continue pushing EV adoption, which is in-line with our mission," it added.

Tesla said that it recently undertook a cost-cutting exercise to increase operational efficiency. "We also remain committed to company-wide cost reduction, including reducing COGS per vehicle,"

The company admitted that many are pulling back on their investments, but it is still investing in future growth, including AI infrastructure, production capacity, Supercharger and service networks and new products infrastructure, with 2.8 billion dollars of capital expenditures in the quarter.