Tesla delivered exactly 139,300 cars in the third quarter of 2020, a new record, exceeding expectations of financial analysts such as Bloomberg which predicted some 129,950 cars would be delivered by the EV maker.
The Californian EV maker shared its third quarter figures over the weekend, Australian time, noting that although it made around 5,000 more electric cars than it delivered, it had also put a dent in on-hand inventory thanks to improvements in delivery times.
The figures, which signal a strong recovery by Tesla after the Covid-19 pandemic shut down factories worldwide in the second quarter, suggest that half of these deliveries were achieved in the final month of the third quarter, when taking into consideration Tesla’s year-to-date August numbers as reported by The Driven last Thursday.
But the numbers did not impress everyone, and the stock fell 7.4% on Friday to close at $US415.09 ($A577.48) – although Bloomberg notes this sell off was at least in part due to fear engendered by US president Trump’s positive Covid-19 test result. It was back up three per cent on Monday US time.
Still, with 318,350 deliveries now under its belt, the EV maker will still need to work hard in the last quarter to reach the promised annual figure of 500,000 delivered electric cars in 2020.
Jeffrey Osborne, an analyst at Cowen & Co. who takes a “market perform” stance on Tesla stock, said in a report quoted by Bloomberg that: ‘We believe the bulls were anticipating deliveries to be in the range of 140,00 to 150,000” vehicles in the latest quarter.
While Osborne estimates Tesla’s annual deliveries will total 462,000 vehicles, McKinsey & Co said that Tesla’s position as a leader in the market is a barometer for global demand.
“Tesla’s good results remain a bright spot in a pandemic-stricken global auto industry. They are a barometer of global demand for electric vehicles, as Tesla seeks to maintain its lead over young startups and conventional automakers who plan to launch dozens of competing battery-powered vehicles in the next few year,” the firm was quoted as saying.
In total, Tesla has delivered 143% more electric cars than the same time in 2019, thanks in part to the opening of its Shanghai factory in China.
To achieve half a million cars delivered by the end of 2020, Tesla will need to up its fourth quarter delivery game by 162%.
In the last quarter, 128,044 Model 3 and Model Ys rolled off Tesla factory floors, while 16,992 Model S and X combined were produced.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.