Any other carmaker and a 40% YoY gain in sales would be considered a tremendous year. However I believe since Tesla has gravitated towards the narrative of being a Tech company that happens to produce cars focused on growth, it was a huge miss from their expected 50% YoY target.
Their impressive margins, cash reserves, valuation, and back log are great, and probably allow them to navigate out of closing up shop as many have predicted. However, I would not take those traits as the end all, as the competition is slowly but steadily getting fierce in select global markets, and in the US, where they supposedly dominated the EV pack they went ahead and had to slash prices (as last by their demand equation and 40% YoY gain in sales). If Tesla continues on this Growth before anything narrative, its going to interesting to say the least.
Lastly, these price cuts are going to effect other players, but I dont expect their problems to be any different then before the price cut. Kia/Hyundai are still going to scramble how to get stateside production and qualify for the IRA credit. Toyota is still confused how to produce an EV before 2030 thats competitive when it launches while being reliable.
On a side note, the holidays sales were an interesting excursion. I believe on latest number those discounts/benefits accounted for less then 4% of Total US sales. I dont understand the purpose, especially when they had alot of backorders.