Tesla Shares Slip Despite Company Reporting Record Deliveries In Q3

Tesla shares are volatile after moving slightly lower Friday morning as the company reported 139,000 vehicles delivered and 145,036 vehicles produced in the third quarter. The number marks a new all time delivery record for the automaker, beating out its previous record of 112,000 vehicles. 

Production is up 50.8% year over year and deliveries were up 43.6% year over year. The numbers also mark what appears to be a return to normalcy after production was impacted during Q2 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Analysts were expecting 137,000 vehicles delivered just days after the quarterly e-mail leak that Tesla is now becoming famous for suggested that the company could have a record quarter. 

The company saw Model S/X deliveries plunge to 15,200…

…while deliveries of Model 3 – which has been coupled with the Model Y since the beginning of 2020, carried most of the weight.

The idea of grouping its models together continues to confuse analysts and seems completely unnecessary, but for obfuscation purposes. As a reminder, major car companies like GM and Ford with many multiples more models than Tesla has, usually break out their sales on a per model basis. 

Tesla has also not broken out its delivery and production numbers by region, which seems relevant now that the company is producing vehicles both in the United States and China. 

Additionally, as one skeptic pointed out, the company is going to find it difficult to make its guidance for 500,000 vehicles produced for the year:

Hey, so to hit Fraud-Boy’s 500,000-car 2020 guidance, $TSLA only has to sell around 183,000 cars this quarter, lol.

— Mark B. Spiegel (@markbspiegel) October 2, 2020

So, instead, we have to go with photographs that are being produced on social media, like this one from Serramonte, California. These vehicles are all “delivered”, are we right?:

By popular demand, a Serramonte Update…well, it would be an “update” if anything had changed much. But this is not the case…more white Model Ys coming in steady. Customers are picking up cars, but obviously at way below replacement rate. $tslaQ $TSLA #SGFreport pic.twitter.com/T0524oSVAZ

— Machine Planet (@Paul91701736) October 1, 2020

Someone just emailed me a snapshot of the “unlimited Tesla demand” at its Mount Kisco, NY location. He says he’s been observing it for a long time, and it’s the most “demand” he’s ever seen there.$TSLA pic.twitter.com/dEiYF9tl5J

— Mark B. Spiegel (@markbspiegel) September 18, 2020