Tesla stock on the rise as Q2 deliveries beat expectations

The Texas-headquartered company delivered 443,956 vehicles in the April-June period

Visitors inspect a Tesla electric car displayed for sale at a shopping mall in Bangkok. EPA

Tesla's share price jumped about 9 per cent after the electric vehicle maker announced quarterly vehicle deliveries that exceeded market expectations.

The Texas-headquartered company said it delivered 443,956 vehicles during April to June, beating market estimates of 439,300.

Troy Teslike, an independent researcher with about 150,000 followers on X, had projected deliveries of 423,000 vehicles in the last quarter.

The better-than-expected deliveries are not only a breath of fresh air for Tesla's margins but for the EV market as a whole, said Thomas Monteiro, a senior analyst at Investing.com.

“The fact that the biggest EV maker in the world managed to deliver more cars … indicates that the EV play is not dead at all, as several analysts were quick to point out a few months ago,” Mr Monteiro told The National.

“The real story here for investors is on the technology front, with both the humanoid robot and the Robotaxi stories developing at an exciting pace. Both, particularly when combined, have the potential to become absolute game-changers for the company's margins, leading to the type of sales Tesla shareholders expect.”

However, Tesla’s second-quarter deliveries were 4.8 per cent less than the numbers reported in the same period last year.

Tesla, which is expected to announce its June quarter earnings on July 23, did not give any reason behind the annual decline in vehicle deliveries.

In the March quarter, the company reported about an 8.5 per cent yearly drop in deliveries and attributed the dip to disruptions caused by Houthi rebel strikes in the Red Sea and an attack at its German factory. That quarter marked the first time Tesla reported a year-on-year decline since the Covid-19 pandemic affected deliveries in 2020.

In the second quarter, the production of the company stood at 410,831 vehicles, more than a 14.3 per cent drop from the period the previous year.

After the announcement, Tesla’s stock rose 8.90 per cent to trade at $228.53 a share at 8.20pm UAE time (12.20pm New York time), giving the company a market value of $716.09 billion. The company’s shares have dropped about 8 per cent since the start of the year.

Tesla's stock is one of the worst performers in the S&P 500 index, which has risen over 15 per cent since the start of the year.

Tesla said it delivered approximately 422,405 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles in the last quarter and around 21,551 higher-priced cars, including the Model X and Model S.

In November, Tesla delivered its first Cybertrucks, four years after the futuristic vehicles first made their debut. The company said it could build more than 125,000 Cybertrucks in a year, but it did not break out its sales of the Cybertrucks in the last quarter.

Last month, the company announced its fourth recall, affecting 11,688 trucks since the model was launched.

In April, the EV maker said it aims to introduce “new models” before the second half of next year as it struggled with weak sales, declining profits and increasing competition in the Chinese market. The carmaker said it is focused on “profitable growth” by using existing factories and production lines to introduce new, cheaper products.

Tesla reported a 55 per cent yearly drop in March quarter net profit to more than $1.1 billion, while revenue dropped 9 per cent to about $21.3 billion during the period.

The Nasdaq-listed company also announced it deployed 9.4 gigawatt hours of energy storage products in the second quarter, the highest quarterly deployment yet.

Updated: July 02, 2024, 4:50 PM