Tesla delivers 343,000 cars in 3rd quarter, fall short of forecasts
FREMONT -- Tesla announced its delivery and production numbers for the third quarter Sunday, reporting 343,000 total deliveries and 365,000 vehicles built, falling below analysts' forecasts.
The world's most valuable automaker, which builds many of its vehicles in Fremont, said it produced 19,935 and delivered 18,672 Model S and X vehicles. It produced 345,988 Model 3 and Y cars and delivered 325,158.
The lower than expected numbers resulted from production stoppages to update its factory in Shanghai. Refinitiv analysts expected Tesla to deliver 359,162 cars.
"While Tesla had delivery challenges in the quarter, this is clearly a soft number that the Street will fret about it," Daniel Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities said. "Given the macro environment, a disappointing delivery number from Tesla will be a near term step back for the bull story with a lot riding on 4Q deliveries."
The report shows an increase in production from the same period last year when Tesla made 237,823 cars and an uptick from the previous quarter when the EV maker built 258,580 cars. The Tesla Model S and X vehicles are higher priced at more than $100,000.
In July sales of Teslas built in China plummeted 64% from the month prior due to an ambitious upgrade of the company's Shanghai factory. The shutdown in production came as the company began recovering from a months-long Covid lockdown in the city that had disrupted production and supplies.
In August, vehicle wholesale volume of Tesla's China-made vehicles surged more than 172% from the month prior.
Tesla said in its report that toward the end of quarter, it had become "increasingly challenging" to secure vehicle transportation capacity at a reasonable cost.
Tesla will post its financial results for the third quarter on October 19.