Tesla Inc’s deliveries of electric vehicles fell in the second quarter of this year compared with the first quarter due mainly to a weeks-long closure of its factory in China, the company said on Saturday.
Tesla delivered 254,695 vehicles from April to last month, it said in a statement.
That was 27 percent more than in the first quarter of last year, but down 18 percent from the January-to-March quarter and the first such decline in more than two years.
Photo: Reuters
This marks a disappointment for a company that says it is posting strong growth, touting the opening of two new factories this year, in Germany and Texas.
The drop in deliveries was bigger than anticipated by analysts, who had expected 264,000 vehicles to be handed over to buyers, data compiled by FactSet Research Systems Inc showed.
Tesla in April said that supply chain snarls hitting the auto industry in general would keep disrupting the company’s production until the end of the year.
However, it delivered a record number of vehicles in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Tesla had to grapple with the closure of its Shanghai factory for several weeks because of strict lockdown measures due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
In its statement on Saturday, the company said it produced 258,000 vehicles in the second quarter, “despite ongoing supply chain challenges and factory shutdowns beyond our control.”
It also said last month was the highest vehicle production month in Tesla’s history.
Elsewhere in the industry, General Motors Co (GM), Toyota Motor Corp and other automakers in the second quarter suffered a hit to US sales, as supply chain woes continued to crimp inventories, results released on Friday showed.
GM sold 582,401 vehicles in the three months ending Thursday, a drop of 15 percent from the same period last year.
The Michigan-based company said it is holding 95,000 partly built vehicles in need of components that it expects to deliver by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Toyota reported sales of 531,105 vehicles over the same period, a drop of 23 percent compared with the second quarter of last year.
The Japanese firm also cited “ongoing inventory challenges” hindering its dealerships.
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