The electric car manufacturer Tesla achieved lower sales than expected in the third quarter despite a delivery record. However, the profit beat analysts’ expectations. The declared delivery target for the full year is becoming more and more ambitious.
Despite high inflation and global economic concerns, Tesla increased profits significantly in the third quarter. The bottom line is that the electric car maker earned $3.29 billion in the three months to the end of September, more than twice as much as a year ago. Tesla announced this after the US stock market closed.
Revenues increased 56 percent to $21.45 billion, but remained below market expectations. Analysts had expected sales of almost $22 billion. The stock initially fell 5 percent in after-hours trading.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s company delivered almost 344,000 electric cars in the past quarter, setting a new record. Nevertheless, it is uncertain whether the group can achieve its ambitious goal of increasing deliveries in 2022 by 50 percent compared to the previous year. To do this, Tesla would have to sell more than 1.4 million vehicles for the year as a whole and bring more than half a million cars to customers in the final quarter. Tesla explained that the growth rate will depend on various factors, including component availability and supply chain stability.
There is also a special focus on how quickly Tesla can ramp up production of its Model Y electric SUV at its new plants in Austin and Berlin – an important milestone for the electric vehicle pioneer. Tesla recently had problems there. The group cited higher costs related to a slower-than-expected increase in production at the new plants and difficulties in delivering vehicles.
