Tesla (TSLA) announced that it delivered a record 343,000 electric cars in the third quarter of this year.
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The automaker also surpassed its previous production record and confirmed a change in delivery momentum at the end of the quarter.
Tesla published the delivery and production numbers for the third quarter of 2022.
The company confirmed that it surpassed delivery and production records by significant margins, with more than 343,000 vehicles delivered and more than 365,000 vehicles produced in the last 3 months.
Tesla confirmed that it produced nearly 346,000 Model 3 and Model Y and delivered about 325,000 of them.
As for the more expensive Model S and Model X, Tesla delivered 18,672 units out of a production run of about 20,000 vehicles.
That means Tesla has over 20,000 new vehicles in inventory at the end of the quarter, which is a high number for the auto industry. However, all of those vehicles have already been sold and are in transit.
See also: Tesla expects "high volume" of vehicle deliveries at the end of Q3
Tesla confirmed that it could not secure transportation at reasonable costs during delivery at the end of the quarter due to limited time, which resulted in more vehicles in transit:
«Historically, our delivery volumes have declined towards the end of each quarter due to local vehicle batch manufacturing. As our production volumes continue to increase, it has become increasingly difficult to ensure the ability to ship vehicles at a reasonable cost during these peak weeks. In the third quarter, we began to transition to a more consistent local vehicle manufacturing rate each week, which resulted in an increase in vehicles in transit at the end of the quarter. These vehicles have been ordered and will be delivered to customers upon arrival at their destination.»
Tesla has previously communicated to its employees that it wants to prioritize cost over delivery numbers during the pushes for the end of the quarter.
The automaker still managed to achieve a delivery – surpassing its last one by more than 30,000 units.
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However, these vehicles in transit led to a shortfall in expectations, as most of them were between 350,000 and 370,000 vehicles this quarter. With the vehicles in transit, Tesla would have reached the highest expectation limit.
