Elon Musk: Tesla delivers a record number of cars after price cuts
- By Annabelle Liang
- Business reporter
image source, Getty Images
Electric car maker Tesla says it delivered a record number of vehicles in the three months to the end of June, after cutting prices to boost sales.
It has cut prices in markets including the US, UK and China to compete with rival manufacturers.
This weekend, major Chinese automakers also reported an increase in June sales.
Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he believed pursuing higher sales, with lower profits, was the “right choice” for the company.
On Sunday, Tesla said it delivered 466,140 vehicles in the second quarter, which was more than 80% higher than a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the company said it had increased car production to nearly 480,000 in the same period.
“Tesla has made a strategic choice to be a volume manufacturer,” Bill Russo, founder and CEO of consultancy Automobility, told the BBC.
“This was the main contributor to the sales increase, as its mainly higher volume Model 3 and Model Y benefited from the price war,” he added.
Dan Ives of investment firm Wedbush Securities told the BBC that “the price cuts in China have been a smart poker move that was hugely successful for Tesla”.
China is Tesla’s second largest market after North America.
The company has cut prices in the world’s second largest economy, where it faces competition from local electric car manufacturers.
Over the weekend, Beijing-based Li-Auto said deliveries had hit a record high of 32,575 in June, marking its third straight monthly sales record.
Meanwhile, shipments from Shanghai-based Nio and Guangzhou-based Xpeng rose to 10,707 and 8,620 respectively during the month.
Tesla has also struggled with increased competition in other parts of the world, and the impact of higher borrowing costs for customers.
It has responded by cutting prices this year.
“We’re not ‘starting a price war’, we’re just lowering prices to enable affordability at scale,” Musk wrote on his social media platform, Twitter.
At the time, Tesla said overall revenue had risen by nearly a quarter in the first quarter from a year ago, as car sales increased.
However, profit for the same period fell by 24% due to price cuts and higher costs of raw materials and other raw materials.
The company will report its financial results for the second quarter on 19 July.
