Tesla, the world’s most valuable automaker registered a 40 per cent year-on-year growth in terms of deliveries in 2022, according to the Q4 vehicle production and delivery report published on Monday. Despite the impressive numbers, Tesla’s new vehicle deliveries fell short of Wall Street expectations.
Tesla produced a total of 439,701 cars in Q4 while managing to deliver 405,278. Comparatively, Tesla only delivered 308,600 vehicles in the same period last year.
The production was increased after Tesla opened up the conveyor belt at its new Austin, Texas and Brandenburg, Germany plant.
Overall, Tesla’s annual production stood at 1.37 million in 2022 where it managed to deliver 1.31 million cars. Last year, the full-year deliveries stood at 936,172 vehicles.
While the numbers are a booster shot of confidence for the Tesla board, it still fell short of the expectations of Wall Street which predicted a sale of 420,000-430,000 vehicles in Q4.
The logistical troubles meant that Tesla’s deliveries in the quarter fell about 34,000 short of production. It also fell short of the ambitious goal set by Musk of expanding deliveries by 50 per cent annually.
While Tesla’s stock plunged 65 per cent in 2022, its worst performance since being listed in 2010, CEO Elon Musk urged the employees to not be “bothered” by the “stock market craziness”.
According to Musk’s e-mail to his staff ahead of the busy holiday season, the Tesla boss asked employees to ‘volunteer’ to deliver as many cars as possible to the customers before the year came to a draw to pump the numbers up.
“Since we have a lot of cars arriving at the last minute, it is important to rally hard and do everything we can to get our cars to customers who have ordered them before midnight on December 31,” wrote Musk in the mail.
“Please go all out for the next few days and volunteer to help deliver if at all possible. It will make a real difference!”
Financial pundits are of the view that Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the controversy surrounding it has negatively impacted the stock pricing of Tesla. Musk hasn’t helped the cause by routinely pulling off his Tesla stocks.
Other factors for the slump include increasing competition from traditional automakers like Ford Motors, General Motors and up-and-coming startups such as Lucid Group and Rivian Automotive.
(With inputs from agencies)
