Tesla Inc reported a record number of quarterly deliveries that greatly exceeded Wall Street predictions, riding out the chip shortages around the globe as it increased China production.
This was the automaker’s sixth consecutive quarter that it had posted record sales.
Tesla shipped 308,600 EVs in Q4, many more than analysts’ estimates of 263,026 cars.
Tesla’s Oct.-Dec. deliveries were up almost 70% from a year prior and up almost 30% in record deliveries from the quarter before that.
“Great work by the Tesla team !” Musk stated via Twitter.
His EV company boosted production in China even when competition had risen, and regulatory pressures mounted after consumer complaints over its product safety.
On a yearly basis, the carmaker has boosted its deliveries by about 87% from a year prior to 936,172 vehicles in 2021.
Musk said in Oct. last year that Tesla would be able to keepa yearly growth rate of over 50% for “quite some time.”
“They have defeated all the odds,” Gene Munster, said this Sunday.
“The first is the high demand for their cars. And the second is they are doing an excellent job of meeting that demand,” he stated.
Munster said he predicts Tesla’s deliveries will grow to 1.3 million EVs in 2022 despite challenges in production at its newer factories and supply chain issues.
Tesla’s CFO Zachary Kirkhorn said in Oct. that it was hard to predict how fast the company will increase production at the new factories in Berlin and Texas, which will use new vehicle tech and new teams.
Tesla said in Oct. that it was aiming to build the first production vehicles at both facilities by Dec. 2021, but it isn’t known if they met that target.
Deutsche Bank stated in a report this week that it thinks Tesla will make about 1.5 million EV deliveries this year, however, chip shortages are still a risk to production.
In 2020, carmakers cut chip orders as the lockdown measures and pandemic hit demand. But Tesla never decreased its production estimates with its suppliers to support its fast growth plan, which has helped it get through the chip shortages, Musk has said.
Tesla, which makes some chips itself unlike most carmakers, also reprogrammed the software to use chips that are less scarce, according to Elon Musk.
Musk, who previously stated, “2021 has been a year of many supply chain shortage issues,” said in Oct. that he was still optimistic that the supply issues would end in 2022.
The strong sales came in even after Tesla increased U.S. vehicle prices by a lot this year to help offset increased supply chain costs.
Tesla reached $1 trillion in market cap in Oct. after Hertz said it had ordered 100,000 of its cars. Tesla’s shares retreated after Elon Musk wrote on Twitter in Nov. that he was thinking about selling 10% of his stake in Tesla.
Author: Scott Dowdy
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