By Emma Roth Via The Verge
Tesla delivered a record 343,830 vehicles in the third quarter of 2022, a sign that the Elon Musk-owned company has bounced back from a slower second quarter related to COVID-related factory shutdowns.
In a report on the automaker’s site, Tesla says the Model S and X made up 18,672 of its quarterly deliveries, while the Model 3 and Y accounted for 325,158. Tesla made a total of 365,923 cars during the quarter, leaving about 20,000 cars in its inventory.
The automaker clarifies that some of these electric vehicles (EVs) were “in transit at the end of the quarter.” Tesla adds they will deliver to customers upon arrival at their destination.” Moreover, Tesla notes that it’s difficult to “secure vehicle transportation capacity and at a reasonable cost during these peak logistics weeks.” It’s why some of the EVs still haven’t been delivered.
Last year, Musk told employees to stop rushing to increase quarterly deliveries and to instead focus on minimizing costs related to transit. Musk echoed that sentiment in reply to a user on Twitter, who asked Musk to expand on the challenges Tesla faces in terms of vehicle transportation.
Tesla ended its two-year streak of record-breaking deliveries last quarter after its Shanghai factory suffered a series of closures stemming from the city’s COVID lockdown restrictions. At the time, the company delivered 254,695 vehicles, its lowest since the third quarter of 2021. Tesla was able to dial up production this quarter now that Shanghai is no longer under lockdown, and the new Gigafactories in Texas and Berlin have started production (despite a cardboard fire).
