The electric car maker Tesla delivered almost 140,000 cars in the third quarter, exceeding expectations. The group has not yet commented on the finances. Most recently, the company had made money for four quarters in a row.
The electric car manufacturer Tesla is recovering rapidly from the sales misery during the pandemic-related restrictions. For the third quarter, the US group posted record sales figures. Accordingly, the company handed over 139,300 cars to customers between June and the end of September. That was 44 percent more than a year ago.
Tesla exceeded the expectations of the analysts, who consensus had reckoned with 137,000 vehicles. The previous quarterly record was 112,000 in the final quarter of 2019, which was not yet affected by the pandemic.
In the first nine months, Tesla delivered 318,000 vehicles, although the factory in Fremont, California, had to close due to the pandemic. Tesla set a goal in January of selling over half a million vehicles this year. That would be an increase of more than a third over the previous year. But that also means that a good 200,000 cars have to be handed over in the last three months of the year.
The group produced 145,036 electric cars in the reporting period. A good 128,000 of these were accounted for by the more compact Model 3 and Model Y, and another 17,000 by the larger Model S and Model X. Group boss Elon Musk said in September that he wanted to ramp up production to 20 million cars a year within a decade. That would be about twice as many as Volkswagen, the world's largest car company in terms of sales, built last year.
Information on the financial position will only follow later with the annual report. Tesla had last made four quarters in a row with a profit for the first time since the company was founded in 2003. In the coming year, the first Tesla factory in Europe is to start production just outside Berlin. More than half a million cars a year are to be produced here in the future.
.