Tesla says it sold a record 1.3 million vehicles last year
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Tesla on Monday said it sold a record 1.3 million vehicles last year, but that number fell short of CEO Elon Musk’s pledge to boost the company’s sales by 50% almost every year.
The 2022 figure topped the previous record of 936,000 vehicles delivered in 2021, but fell short of the 1.4 million needed to meet the company’s 50% growth target. Sales were up 40% year-over-year, while production soared 47% to 1.37 million.
The shortfall came despite a major year-end sales push that included rare $7,500 US rebates on Model Ys and Model 3s, the company’s top-selling models.
Tesla Inc., which is based in Austin, Texas, also had to deal with rising cases of the novel coronavirus in China, which halted production at its Shanghai factory.
With the additional push from the United States, Tesla delivered more than 405,000 vehicles worldwide in the fourth quarter. But that missed Wall Street’s projections. Analysts polled by data provider FactSet predicted 427,000 deliveries from October to December and 1.33 million for the full year.
“Thank you to all of our customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and supporters who helped us achieve a great 2022 in light of significant COVID and supply chain challenges throughout the year,” said the electric vehicle and solar panel company said Monday.
Tesla launched no new models last year and faces growing competition from traditional automakers and startups such as Lucid and Rivian, which continually introduce new electric vehicles.
But Musk has promised to start producing the long-awaited Cybertruck electric pickup this year. The company has also started delivering its electric semi-trailers.
The discounts, offered in the last two weeks of the year, raised questions about whether demand was softening for Tesla products as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to fight inflation.
That, coupled with Musk’s behavior after his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, helped send Tesla shares down more than 65% last year, knocking Musk out of the top spot for wealthiest person. of the world, according to Forbes.
The company’s stock decline for the year, the worst on record, was more than triple the decline of the S&P 500, which was down 19.4%.
Musk wrote on Twitter on Dec. 30 that the company’s long-term fundamentals are strong, but “near-term market madness” is unpredictable.
Some investors fear Twitter has distracted Musk from the automaker. Musk said last month that he plans to stay on as CEO of Twitter until he can find someone willing to replace him in the job.
Yahoo
