Reluctant as I am to chase Tesla headlines, I’m compelled to mention the company’s delivery numbers for Q1, released on Tuesday.

In short: They weren’t great. I’d call them downright bad (or something worse than bad) but I’d hate to hurt any delicate feelings among Elon Musk’s legions of fans, who were left staring at a near 9% YoY sales decline.

The 386,810 vehicles Musk managed to deliver in Q1 was nowhere close to consensus. The miss would’ve been egregious enough on its own, but it was made worse by the fact that Street estimates had come in considerably. So, Musk failed to clear a lowered bar.

Tesla delivered a record number of cars in 2023 despite myriad (and multifarious) headwinds.

This wasn’t a complete surprise, even if the scope of the miss certainly was. While reporting Q4 results in January, Tesla warned that 2024 would be a transition year of sorts. The company described itself as “between two major growth waves” and said volumes “may be notably lower” compared to 2023.

Still, the Q1 deliveries figure was inescapably underwhelming. Tesla blamed, in part anyway, firebugs and the Houthis. “Decline in volumes was partially due to the early phase of the production ramp of the updated Model 3 at our Fremont factory and shutdowns resulting from shipping diversions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at Gigafactory Berlin,” the brief color accompanying the sales results read.

There’s no question that macro factors, various Tesla-specific idiosyncrasies, waning demand and elevated rates together explain the vast majority of the sales decline. That said, I’d be totally remiss not to at least mention Musk’s erratic behavior and social media antics. Although it’d be a stretch (and probably not a small one) to suggest Musk’s overtly controversial political musings are materially impacting Tesla’s sales, it’d be naive not to acknowledge the distinct possibility that at least some would-be buyers are perturbed enough by his libertarian proselytizing to second-guess an inclination to purchase a Tesla.

But what do I know, right? Maybe eight years of sobriety’s impairing my analytical faculties. Maybe I’d understand the strategy if I had a ketamine prescription.

Tesla’s shares have lost nearly a third of their value so far in 2024.