The company on Saturday disclosed it sold more than 254,000
cars and SUVs from April through June, an 18 percent 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 percent
drop in sales during the second quarter as the average price for vehicles
skyrocketed to a record of $45,844 amid soaring inflation, according to J.D.
Power.
Tesla's sales drop may be a harbinger of weaker
second-quarter earnings for the Austin, Texas, company, which is the world's
top-seller of battery-powered vehicles and has posted net profits for nearly
three years. Tesla plans to release its full results for the April-June period
on July 20.
Like many other stocks, Tesla shares have been hard hit this
year. But the 35 percent decline in Tesla's stock price hasn't been entirely
tied to the company's see-sawing fortunes.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also has made a $44 billion bid for
Twitter, which he placed on hold after complaining that it has too many spam
bot users who aren't humans. Much of the erosion in Tesla's value has occurred
since Musk became Twitter's largest shareholder and then launched a takeover
bid that has raised concerns he has too much on his already crowded plate.
Musk has used his own 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. Wedbush analyst
Dan Ives estimates that more than 40 percent of Tesla's sales come from China,
and that the Shanghai factory produced about 70,000 fewer vehicles due to the
shutdowns.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also has made a $44 billion (roughly Rs.
3,47,800 crores) bid for Twitter, which he placed on hold after complaining
that it has too many spam bot users who aren't humans. Much of the erosion in
Tesla's value has occurred since Musk became Twitter's largest shareholder and
then launched a takeover bid that has raised concerns he has too much on his
already crowded plate
Musk has used his own 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. Wedbush analyst
Dan Ives estimates that more than 40 percent 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 Saturday,
saying it produced more vehicles during June than in any other month in its
history. The company didn't disclose the number of vehicles manufactured during
June.
As of early Saturday afternoon, Musk hadn't tweeted about
Tesla's second-quarter sales. But he created a bit of a stir late Friday with
ending an uncharacteristically long nine-day silence on Twitter. His Friday
tweets included one with him and four his children meeting with Pope Francis.
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 May 30 interview with a Tesla owners' club that was
just released last week, 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 percent 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.
As the pandemic erupted in the U.S. in 2020, automakers had
to shut factories for eight weeks to help stop the virus from spreading. Some
parts companies canceled orders for semiconductors. At the same time, demand
for laptops, tablets and gaming consoles skyrocketed as people stuck at home
upgraded their devices.
By the time auto production resumed, chip makers had shifted
production to consumer goods, creating a shortage of weather-resistant
automotive-grade chips. Although Tesla has fared better than other automakers,
the industry still can't get enough chips.