Sales of Teslas, almost all of them Model 3 or Y, totalled just over 450,000 in Q3. And this means cumulative sales for the first three quarters of the year of 1,324,074, more than the 1,313,851 the Elon Muck-led firm sold in 2022 as a whole (see main image).
Production is also almost on a par with last year after just 75pc of 2023. Slightly more than 1.35mn Teslas have rolled off the production line, compared to c.1.37mn in 2022.
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Q3 output was the lowest since the same quarter last year (see Fig.1). But Tesla attributes this to planned downtimes for factory upgrades.
Fig.1: Lowest Tesla quarterly output since Q3 last year
Its year-on-year production increase of 17.6pc is the lowest since Q2’20 and the depths of the Covid pandemic of last year. And it is the first quarter in five where quarter-on-quarter production has dropped back.
The lower production did, though, allow Tesla to sell more cars than it produced, for the first time since Q2’22. But implied Model 3 and Y inventory — despite declining by over 2,000 vehicles — remains relatively high at almost 86,000, or over 20pc of quarterly production (see Fig.2).
Fig.1: Implied Tesla 3 and Y inventory remains historically high in real terms and relative to production
Tesla continues to forecast sales for 2023 as whole of 1.8mn, which would equate to year-on-year sales rising by 37pc. And Q4 should also see Tesla hit a significant production milestone, as it needs only to build a further 120,000 units to take combined Model 3 and Y output above the 5mn mark (see Fig.3).
Cumulative Model 3 and Y production closes in on 5mn mark
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