Tesla is looking at solid third quarter earnings despite the electric vehicle giant missing its own forecast for deliveries of its iconic vehicles in the three months to September 30.
Tesla said at the weekend that third-quarter electric vehicle deliveries were 343,830, lower than expected which was due to production stoppages to update its factory in Shanghai.
Analyst forecasts had expected the world’s most valuable automaker to deliver 359,162 units, compared with the 241,300 units a year earlier.
Still the September quarter was a record, and up 42% year on year and it was significantly higher than deliveries in the June and March quarters.
Tesla delivered 254,695 vehicles in the June quarter (when the company lost production for nearly a month in Shanghai in May). The September quarter figure was also up from the 310,041 vehicles delivered in the March quarter of this year.
But US analysts say the lower than forecast deliveries suggests Tesla earnings, scheduled for October 19, will could come in a little lower than expected, although there were price rises in the June and September quarters reported in the media that may offset the lower deliveries.
The EV giant is still forecast to report record quarterly revenues and net income.
Tesla said that produced 365,000 vehicles in the September quarter. The discrepancy of 22,000 vehicles between production and deliveries reflects the number of cars that had been ordered but were not yet delivered.
“As our production volumes continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly challenging to secure vehicle transportation capacity and at a reasonable cost during these peak logistics weeks,” Tesla said in a press release.
In Sunday’s release, Tesla said changes to its production process had “led to an increase in cars in transit at the end of the quarter”.
Chief executive Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla was trying to smooth out its “crazy end of quarter delivery wave” and aiming for steadier deliveries intra-quarter.
“Customer experience suffers when there is an end of quarter rush,” he said. “Steady as she goes is the right move.”
The company did not offer a regional breakdown for its factories in Shanghai, California, Texas and Berlin. It only said that its more affordable Model Y and 3 vehicles accounted for 325,158 of the delivered vehicles, while the pricier X and S cars comprised 18,672 units.
In the third quarter of 2021 Tesla reported revenue of $US12.057 billion and net income of $1.618 billion – both will be topped in the results release on October 19. In the June, 2022 quarter the company saw revenue of $US16.9 billion and net income of $2.259 billion.
