Tesla Inc., Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company, announced that deliveries of its battery-powered crossovers and cars jumped 122% to a quarterly record. This was due to continued growth in China. Analysts expected a more significant increase.
According to the manufacturer, Palo Alto, California, it delivered 201,250 vehicles globally in the second quarter of 2021, increasing 90,650 from a year ago. However, this was less than the expected 207,000 deliveries as per FactSet’s average estimate. Bloomberg polled analysts and predicted 204,160 deliveries. It also beat the previous quarterly record of 184,877 Tesla deliveries in the first quarter.
Comparing to a year ago was easy due to the production disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing growth of China’s production. Tesla’s recent growth was fueled by the opening of a Shanghai plant early last year. This is because local production allows Tesla to sell cars to Chinese customers without high import tariffs.
“Overall, this quarter was an impressive performance by Musk & Co. and now (Tesla), should be able hit 900k vehicles per year which was a major stretch target to kick off the year,” Dan Ives, Wedbush equity analyst, stated in a research paper.
Model 3 sedans were delivered, and Model Y hatchbacks were delivered. However, only 1,890 received the pricier Model S sedans and X crossovers, costing more than $100,000.
The quarter’s production was 206,421, an increase of 82,272 from last year.
“The company stated that its team has done an outstanding job navigating global supply chain and logistic challenges. This is something we agree with, as TSLA seems to be relatively immune from shortages of semiconductors which have plagued other automakers,” Garrett Nelson, CFRA analyst, said in a research paper. We believe this is due to the company’s early supply procurement. The company has plans for a large volume ramp in 2021.
Tesla does not provide any geographic information in its quarterly releases. It is therefore unclear how much the U.S. sales have increased over last year. In a few weeks, the company will release its financial results for the quarter.
Tesla shares closed at $678.90 Friday, with little change from the previous day. However, they gained 98c to close at $678.90.
