Tesla Inc. delivered a record 466,140 cars worldwide in the second quarter, outpacing Wall Street estimates.
The results, posted Sunday, demonstrated that Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk‘s vow to chase volume by cutting prices have had their intended effect. Analysts Bloomberg surveyed had expected Tesla to ship 448,350 cars in the quarter. “It’s a big beat,” said Ben Kallo of Robert W. Baird in a phone interview Sunday morning.
The deliveries are the most ever in a quarter for Tesla, and an 83 percent increase from a year ago. The company also managed to trim the gap between production and deliveries to 13,560 units in the second quarter. In the first quarter, it produced nearly 18,000 more cars than it delivered to customers.
“Everyone was worried about inventory build, and it looks like they’ve normalized,” said Kallo. “The delta between production and deliveries is shrinking.”
