Tesla has never before handed over more vehicles to customers than this summer. But it could have been even more without the lockdown and delivery problems in China. It is precisely this mixed situation in the important market that worries investors.
Electric carmaker Tesla missed analysts’ expectations in the summer despite record deliveries. On the stock market, it went down by almost seven percent in early trading. The U.S. company had previously announced that it had handed over just under 344,000 cars to its customers between June and the end of September. However, experts had expected an average of more than 359,00 vehicles.
Tesla was slowed down by production interruptions due to corona lockdowns at its Shanghai plant and logistics problems. As production volumes continued to rise, it became increasingly difficult to secure vehicle transportation capacity at reasonable cost during peak logistics weeks, Tesla further stated. Tesla had delivered 241,300 cars in the third quarter of 2021. Models produced in China were likely to be most affected, commented analyst Jeffrey Osborne of asset manager Cowen. The big question now is whether business there will cool down.
Total production increased more than 40 percent in the third quarter to 365,923 vehicles compared with the previous quarter. Tesla plans to significantly increase production of its best-selling Model Y and Model 3 electric vehicles in the fourth quarter, according to internal plans, and continue that growth by ramping up its Austin and Grünheide plants near Berlin through 2023.
The U.S. company plans to produce nearly 495,000 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles in the final quarter of 2022, internal plans said. That would be around 40 percent more than the average analyst forecast. Tesla would thus also outpace the global auto market growth forecast for 2023 by nearly 10 times, with a production increase of more than 50 percent. However, Tesla has set targets several times in the past, which it then had to retract.
