Palo Alto, Calif., Oct. 3 (BUS): Tesla says it delivered 241,300 electric vehicles in the third quarter even as it grappled with a global shortage of computer chips that has hit the entire auto industry.
Sales of the Palo Alto, California, company, from July to September exceeded Wall Street estimates of 227,000 sales worldwide, data provider FactSet, AP, reports.
Third-quarter sales are up 72% compared to 140,000 deliveries Tesla made for the same period last year.
So far this year, Tesla has sold about 627,300 vehicles. That puts it on track to beat it soundly over last year’s total of 499,550.
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note to investors that the pace of electric vehicle delivery in the United States and China has been strong over the past month or so. That means “an impressive growth trajectory into the fourth quarter and 2022 for (CEO Elon) Musk & Co.”
However, Ives estimated that the chip shortage would subtract 40,000 cars from Tesla’s annual delivery number. He estimates deliveries to be at least 865,000 vehicles, with a bull condition of about 900,000.
In short, with the headwinds of chip shortages, Chinese demand still recovering from earlier this year, and competition for electric vehicles coming from all angles, Tesla’s ability to weather these challenges this quarter has been very impressive,” he wrote.
In the third quarter, the smaller Model 3 sedan and Y SUV led the way with sales of 232,025, followed by the larger Model S and X at 9,275. Tesla said it produced 237,823 vehicles during the quarter.
RAE