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Tesla posts record vehicle deliveries

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Tesla Inc on Friday posted record vehicle deliveries for the second quarter that were in line with Wall Street estimates as the electric-car maker coped with a shortage of chips and relied on sales of its cheaper models.

Tesla weathered the global supply crisis better than legacy automakers, but CEO Elon Musk has warned of challenges of securing chips and raw materials.

Now eyes are on its second-quarter earnings to see whether recent drops in bitcoin prices would have an adverse effect on Tesla’s bottom line, due to Tesla’s exposure to the cryptocurrency’s volatility.

Tesla delivered 201 250 vehicles in total during the second quarter. Analysts had expected Tesla to deliver 200 258 vehicles, according to Refinitiv data.

“It was a solid quarter to volume-wise, but I view it as a modest disappointment,” Garrett Nelson, an equity analyst at CFRA Research, said.

Shares of the company were trading flat, after rising as much as 3.3% in early trading on Friday.

Tesla bulls cheered the results. “This morning the Street was bracing for bad news and the bulls instead got an early July 4th weekend positive surprise,” said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

“Our teams have done an outstanding job navigating through global supply chain and logistics challenges,” Tesla said.

The numbers showed that strong deliveries of its Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers, its two lower-priced variants, offset a drop in deliveries of higher-end Model S and X variants.

Tesla has been raising prices for its vehicles in recent months, which its billionaire boss, Elon Musk, blamed in May on “major supply chain price pressure”, especially raw materials.

He also said in early June that “Our biggest challenge is supply chain, especially microcontroller chips. Never seen anything like it.”

Brokerage RBC said, “Worst may be over for Tesla” for chip shortage, but added that potential margin impact from broad supply chain tightness could persist through the year.

 

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