- Tesla rarely delivers less than it produces
- Tesla stock had its worst year since its IPO in 2022
Jan 2 (Portal) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) on Monday reported record fourth-quarter electric vehicle production and deliveries, but missed Wall Street estimates weighed on by logistics problems, slowing demand, rising interest rates and recession fears.
The world’s most valuable automaker delivered 405,278 vehicles over the last three months of the year, compared to Wall Street’s expectations of 431,117 vehicles, according to data from Refinitiv.
In the same period last year, the company delivered 308,600 vehicles.
Tesla delivered 388,131 Model 3 compact sedans and Model Y sports utility vehicles (SUVs), compared to 17,147 Model X and Model S luxury cars.
In total, Tesla produced 439,701 cars in the fourth quarter.
Portal graphics
As logistical bottlenecks continued — a problem CEO Elon Musk said in October that he’s working to resolve — Tesla’s fourth-quarter deliveries fell about 34,000 vehicles behind production.
In the third quarter, the company’s deliveries were about 22,000 units below production.
Delivering fewer cars than it makes was rare for the automaker, which delivered more or similar numbers on the vehicles produced in previous quarters.
Analysts have cited weakness in demand in the world’s leading auto market, China, as well as stiff competition from legacy automakers such as Ford Motor Co (FN), General Motors Co (GM.N) and startups such as Rivian Automotive (RIVN.O) and Lucid Group (LCID.O).
Tesla plans to run a reduced production schedule at its Shanghai plant in January and extend the reduced production started this month into next year, according to a Portal report based on a review of an internal schedule.
Tesla’s shares, which were dormant Monday due to a Lunar New Year holiday, fell 65% in 2022, its worst year since its 2010 IPO. Analysts and retail shareholders feared demand problems amid an uncertain economy would hurt the company’s growth target Deliveries by 50% annually.
“This was a disappointing delivery number and the bulls will not be happy,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.
Tesla said in a separate statement that it plans to host its Investor Day on March 1 and livestream the event from its Gigafactory in Texas when long-term plans for expansion and capital allocation are discussed.
The automaker also hinted at a “Generation 3” platform it would show its investors at Investor Day. Musk said in October that Tesla was working on a “next-generation vehicle” that will be cheaper and smaller than the Model 3 and Model Y cars.
(This story has been refiled to remove the New York Date Line.)
Reporting by Akash Sriram and Baranjot Kaur in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Akanksha Khushi; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Matthew Lewis, Howard Goller and Barbara Lewis
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