Tesla’s third-quarter deliveries fell short of expectations, it said on Wednesday, as tycoon Elon Musk’s electric car company was hit by tough competition from companies in China and Europe. This sent shares of the world’s most valuable carmaker down 3.8%.
Tesla delivered 462,890 vehicles in the third quarter (to September 30), up 6.4% from the previous quarter. Wall Street on average expected Musk’s company to deliver 469,828 vehicles, according to 12 analysts polled by LSEG.
Tesla’s difficult goal for the fourth quarter
The company will need to deliver a record 516,344 vehicles in the fourth quarter if it is to match last year’s delivery of 1.81 million vehicles. A shortfall on that target could send Tesla to its first annual drop in deliveries.
Rising competition in the United States, a lack of European subsidies and a slowdown in consumer spending in China put a damper on Tesla’s quarterly deliveries.
The American electric car company faces stiff competition from Chinese automakers such as BYD and Xpeng, which have been aggressively expanding their presence in the world’s biggest auto market with the help of Beijing government subsidies.
However, BYD’s sales of 443,426 electric vehicles in the third quarter were lower than Tesla’s as the Chinese EV giant focused on plug-in hybrid vehicles, whose deliveries rose more than 75% last quarter.
Source: www.autoblog.gr
