Tesla Inc.saw its deliveries fall 4.9 percent in the second quarter but the company’s shares rose as the automaker sold more vehicles than expected in a period hit by coronavirus lockdowns.
The delivery numbers come a day after Tesla became the highest-valued automaker, surpassing the market capitalization of former front-runner Toyota Motors Corp.
Tesla said Thursday it delivered 90,650 vehicles during the quarter, compared with 95,365 in the same period last year. Still, its sales beat Wall Street estimates of 74,130 vehicles, according to Refinitiv data. It delivered 80,050 units of its new Model Y crossover and Model 3 for the quarter.
Shares of Tesla were up 8.2 percent to $1,211.39 in early trading Thursday.
Earlier this week, CEO Elon Musk in an internal email called on employees to work hard to allow Tesla to break even in the quarter despite the coronavirus crisis.
“While our main factory in Fremont was shut down for much of the quarter, we have successfully ramped production back to prior levels,” the automaker said in a statement.
During the period from April to June, much of United States was under government imposed stay-at-home orders to combat the spread of the virus, which impacted production and caused a plunge in auto sales.
The lockdown resulted in shutdown of production at Tesla’s only U.S. vehicle factory in California for more than six weeks from the end of March to early May.
Automotive News contributed to this report.
