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Tesla announces record deliveries of 97,000 cars in Q3

Tesla released its Q3 2019 delivery and production numbers today after market-close and the company confirmed a new delivery record of 97,000 vehicles.

Over the last week, we have been reporting that CEO Elon Musk told employees in an email that Tesla “has a shot” at delivering 100,000 vehicles during the third quarter.

Tesla was in a full force end-of-the-quarter delivery push, but a day before the end of the quarter, sources told Electrek the automaker was “a few thousand” cars short of the goal.

It didn’t mean that it was impossible to achieve, but it made it hard.

Today, Tesla confirmed “record production of 96,155 vehicles and record deliveries of approximately 97,000 vehicles” – coming short of its goal by a few thousand units.

Tesla’s previous record was achieved in Q2 2019 when the automaker produced 87,048 vehicles and delivered approximately 95,200 vehicles globally.

For the past three months, Tesla also confirmed achieving record net orders and entering the fourth quarter with a bigger backlog:

“In addition, we achieved record net orders in Q3 and are entering Q4 with an increase in our order backlog.”

In the leaked email, Musk told employees that Tesla was tracking at 110,000 new net orders for the quarter.

Tesla’s stock (TSLA) was down by as much as 5% in after-hours trading following the news.

Electrek’s Take

This is great news. Not as great as 100,000 cars, but we kind of expected that after what we heard from our sources on Monday.

Either way, we are still talking about Tesla producing and delivering a record number of all-electric vehicles.

Also, based on what we know in terms of net orders, it is clear that the missed goal is not a demand problem.

It’s a production and logistics problem, which is going to be partly fixed by the start of production at Gigafactory 3. It’s going to increase Tesla’s overall production capacity and free up some capacity in Fremont for a quicker turnaround in markets outside of China.

Here’s Tesla’s full press release:

Tesla Q3 2019 Vehicle Production & Deliveries

PALO ALTO, Calif., October 2, 2019 – In the third quarter, we achieved record production of 96,155 vehicles and record deliveries of approximately 97,000 vehicles.

Production Deliveries Subject to lease accounting
Model S/X 16,318 17,400 15%
Model 3 79,837 79,600 8%
Total 96,155 97,000

In addition, we achieved record net orders in Q3 and are entering Q4 with an increase in our order backlog. As was also the case in Q2, nearly all of our Model 3 orders were received from customers who did not previously hold a reservation, solidifying the transition to generating strong organic demand. We are continuing to focus on increasing production to meet that demand.

***************

Our net income and cash flow results will be announced along with the rest of our financial performance when we announce Q3 earnings. Our delivery count should be viewed as slightly conservative, as we only count a car as delivered if it is transferred to the customer and all paperwork is correct. Final numbers could vary by up to 0.5% or more. Tesla vehicle deliveries represent only one measure of the company’s financial performance and should not be relied on as an indicator of quarterly financial results, which depend on a variety of factors, including the cost of sales, foreign exchange movements and mix of directly leased vehicles.

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Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

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