The Elon Musk-led company sold 435,059 vehicles in the July-September period, as against 343,830 units sold in the corresponding period of 2022
Electric vehicle giant Tesla Inc recorded a 27 percent on-year surge in the sales clocked during the July-September period, even as the numbers dropped sequentially due to a planned factory downtime.
The Elon Musk-led company sold 435,059 vehicles in the third quarter of calendar year 2023, as against 343,830 units sold in the corresponding period of 2022, as per the data shared by FactSet Research on October 2.
Quarter-on-quarter, the sales dropped by around 7 percent, as it stood at 466,140 units in the April-June period. Analysts pin the slump on softening demand as well as the company's scheduled factory upgrades.
The Texas-headquartered automaker's total production in Q3 came in at 430,488 units, which is slightly lower than the amount of vehicles sold in the same period.
The company will need a big finish to 2023 to realize CEO Musk's stated goal of increasing its sales by 50 percent annually. To hit that target, Tesla will have to sell 1.97 million vehicles this year. Through the first nine months of the year, Tesla has delivered just over 1.3 million vehicles. Analysts are anticipating Tesla will sell 1.84 million vehicles for the full year.
Tesla has been slashing prices most of this year to keep attracting buyers who now have a wider selection of electric vehicles as more automakers shift away from gasoline-powered cars and trucks. The discounts range from $4,400 on Tesla's top-selling vehicles to as much as $20,000 on its most expensive models.
Just how much the latest round of cost cutting has trimmed Tesla's profit margins will be detailed Oct. 18 when it plans to release its third-quarter earnings.
Shares of Tesla fell 2.5% just after Monday's opening bell. Despite the squeeze that already has occurred on Tesla's profits, the company's stock price has nearly doubled so far this year. Part of the run-up has stemmed from a deal allowing rivals General Motors and Ford to join its charging network.
Tesla also could be an indirect beneficiary from a labor strike that began last month and continues to close down factories operated by GM, Ford and Stellantis. The United Auto Workers labor union is demanding major wage increases that would likely drive up the prices of their cars and trucks — a pain point that Tesla isn't facing with its non-union workforce.
The UAW is also fighting for higher wages and union representation at factories that make the batteries for electric vehicles, demands that the U.S. automakers are resisting in a battle they say they need to win to remain competitive with Tesla and foreign companies.
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