Tesla releases Q1 2019 numbers: produced 77,100 vehicles and delivered 63,000

Tesla has released its first quarter 2019 numbers today – confirming the production of 77,100 vehicles and 63,000 deliveries.

In comparison, Tesla delivered and produced a record number of vehicles during the previous quarter: 90,700 cars delivered and 86,555 vehicles produced.

Tesla didn’t explain the significant quarter-to-quarter drop in production, but the company did highlight that the even larger drop in deliveries was due to Model 3’s introduction in Europe and China resulting in “many challenges.”

Due to those issues, Tesla ended the quarter with a large number of vehicles in transit to customers: 10,600 vehicles. Those cars are going to be delivered in Q2.

Nonetheless, Q1 2019 deliveries represent a 110% year-over-year increase.

Here’s the breakdown of Tesla’s Q1 2019 deliveries per model:

• Model 3: 50,900 units
• Model S and X: 12,100 units

As for Model 3 production, Tesla ended the quarter with 62,950 units – slightly up from the last quarter and an average of just under 5,000 units per week.

Here’s Tesla’s press release in full:

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 03, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In the first quarter, we produced approximately 77,100 total vehicles, consisting of 62,950 Model 3 and 14,150 Model S and X.

Deliveries were approximately 63,000 vehicles, which was 110% more than the same quarter last year, but 31% less than last quarter. This included approximately 50,900 Model 3 and 12,100 Model S and X.

Due to a massive increase in deliveries in Europe and China, which at times exceeded 5x that of prior peak delivery levels, and many challenges encountered for the first time, we had only delivered half of the entire quarter’s numbers by March 21, ten days before end of quarter. This caused a large number of vehicle deliveries to shift to the second quarter. At the end of the first quarter, approximately 10,600 vehicles were in transit to customers globally.

Because of the lower than expected delivery volumes and several pricing adjustments, we expect Q1 net income to be negatively impacted. Even so, we ended the quarter with sufficient cash on hand.

In North America, Model 3 was yet again the best-selling mid-sized premium sedan, selling 60% more units than the runner up. Inventory of Model 3 vehicles in North America remains exceptionally low, reaching about two weeks of supply at the end of Q1, compared to the industry average of 2-3 months.

Despite pull forward of demand from Q1 2019 into Q4 2018 due to the step down in the federal tax credit, US orders for Model 3 vehicles significantly outpaced what we were able to deliver in Q1. We reaffirm our prior guidance of 360,000 to 400,000 vehicle deliveries in 2019.

Given that Tesla vehicle production currently occurs entirely from one factory in the San Francisco Bay Area, but must be delivered to customers all around the world, production could be significantly higher than deliveries, as it was this quarter, when production exceeded deliveries by 22%.

We’ve just begun the global expansion of Model 3, and we want to thank our employees for their hard work and our customers for supporting our mission. We are doing everything we can to deliver cars globally as quickly as possible and look forward to continuing to scale deliveries throughout the year.