Tesla Inc A record 466,140 vehicles were delivered worldwide in the second quarter, beating Wall Street estimates.
The results, published Sunday, show that CEO Elon Musk’s pledge to chase volume by cutting prices is having the intended effect. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg predicted that Tesla would ship 448,350 cars in the quarter.
“It’s a big hit,” Robert W. Baird’s Ben Callow said in a phone interview Sunday morning. “People were still preparing for another round of price cuts, and this high delivery number makes that less of a risk.”
Deliveries are the highest in a quarter for Austin-based Tesla, up 83% He increases from a year ago. The company also managed to narrow the gap between production and delivery — a number analysts are watching closely — to 13,560 units in the second quarter. In the first quarter, it produced nearly 18,000 more cars than it produced for customers.
“Everyone was worried about building inventory, and it seems like they’ve normalized,” Kallo said. “The gap between production and delivery is closing, which Tesla said they would do.”
Tesla, which sells its cars directly to consumers, has plenty of levers to get the vehicles moving. Besides cutting prices across the lineup earlier this year, the company introduced perks, like three months of Free express shipping in the US for cars delivered before June 30th to entice buyers. Analysts expected price cuts to continue into the next year.
Tesla does not break down quarterly delivery numbers by individual vehicle type or region. The Models 3 and Y accounted for 96% of sales. Tesla also makes the Model S and X.
Tesla is still easily the largest maker of electric cars in the United States, but it faces new competition around the world. It’s the latest vehicle – the Model Y – to debut in 2020.
In China – Market No. 2 – the company is far behind BYD Corporation, which has a newer lineup and growing global ambitions. Last week, Tesla announced that it would lower the prices of its cars Premium car models in China by more than 4.5%, after a decision to distribute cash subsidies to some buyers of its Model 3 cars last month.
Tesla will report its second quarter earnings on July 19.
