Electric automobile producer Tesla says it bought a document 1.3 million automobiles final yr, however the quantity fell wanting CEO Elon Musk’s pledge to develop the corporate’s gross sales by 50 per cent practically yearly.
The 2022 determine topped the prior document of 936,000 automobiles delivered in 2021, however it was shy of the 1.4 million wanted to achieve the corporate’s 50 per cent development goal. Sales grew 40 per cent yr over yr, whereas manufacturing climbed 47 per cent to 1.37 million.
The shortfall got here regardless of a significant year-end gross sales push that included uncommon $US7500 ($A11,000) reductions within the US on the Models Y and three, the corporate’s top-selling fashions.
Tesla Inc, which is predicated in Austin, Texas, additionally needed to cope with rising instances of the novel coronavirus in China, which reduce into manufacturing at its Shanghai manufacturing facility.
With the additional US push, Tesla delivered greater than 405,000 automobiles worldwide within the fourth quarter. But that missed Wall Street projections.
Analysts polled by information supplier FactSet anticipated 427,000 deliveries from October by December and 1.33 million for the complete yr.
“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 related challenges throughout the year,” the electrical automobile and photo voltaic panel firm stated on Monday.
Tesla did not roll out any new fashions final yr, and it is dealing with growing competitors from legacy automakers and startups resembling Lucid and Rivian, that are regularly introducing new electrical automobiles.
But Musk has promised to start out producing the long-awaited Cybertruck electrical pickup this yr. The firm additionally has began delivering its electrical semis.
The reductions, provided over the last two weeks of the yr, raised questions on whether or not demand was softening for Tesla merchandise because the Federal Reserve raised rates of interest to fight inflation.
That, coupled with Musk’s behaviour after his $US44 billion buy of Twitter, helped to push Tesla shares down greater than 65 per cent final yr, bumping Musk out of the highest spot for the world’s wealthiest particular person, in response to Forbes.
The firm’s inventory decline for the yr, its worst ever, was greater than triple the drop within the S&P 500, which was down 19.4 per cent.
Musk wrote on Twitter December 30 that the corporate’s long-term fundamentals are robust, however “short-term market madness” is unpredictable.
Some buyers are nervous that Twitter has distracted Musk from the automobile firm.
Musk stated final month that he plans to stay as Twitter’s CEO till he can discover somebody keen to switch him within the job.
