Tesla's sales from April through June fell to their lowest quarterly level since last autumn as supply chain issues and pandemic restrictions in China hobbled production of its electric vehicles.
The company disclosed it sold 254,000 cars and SUVs from April through June 2022, an 18% drop from the first three months of this year and also well below the pace in last year's final quarter. The last time Tesla sold fewer vehicles globally was in the third quarter of 2021 when it delivered 241,000.
On Friday, the rest of the industry reported a 21% drop in sales during the second quarter as the average price for vehicles skyrocketed to a record of $45,800 amid soaring inflation, according to J.D. Power.
Like many other stocks, Tesla shares have been hard hit this year. But the 35% decline in Tesla's stock price hasn't been entirely tied to the company's see-sawing fortunes.
Musk has used his Twitter account, which now has more than 100 million followers, to discuss the pandemic restrictions that forced the Shanghai factory to temporarily close during the quarter.
In Association with
It is estimated that c.40% of Tesla's sales come from China, and that the Shanghai factory produced about 70,000 fewer vehicles due to the shutdowns.
But Tesla signaled things are getting better, saying it produced more vehicles during June than in any other month in its history.
Tesla's latest delivery numbers came out a week after the release of an interview with Musk in which he described new factories in Austin and Berlin as "money furnaces" that were losing billions of dollars because supply chain breakdowns were limiting the number of cars they can produce.
In a 30 May interview with a Tesla owners' club, Musk said that getting the Berlin and Austin plants functional "are overwhelmingly our concerns. Everything else is a very small thing," Musk said, but added that "it's all gonna get fixed real fast".
Musk also has discussed making salaried workers return to offices and a possible 10% cut in Tesla's work force due to a possible recession.
Supply chain breakdowns since the onset of Covid-19 two years ago have been especially debilitating for automakers, who get parts from all corners of the globe. A lack of computer chips needed to run cars' computers compounded automakers' problems and sent prices for used and new cars skyrocketing.
+Additional reporting by AP.
Photo: Elon Musk. (Pic: AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
