Tesla Posts Record EV Deliveries In Fourth Quarter – But Misses Expectations

In the final quarter of the year, the world's leading maker of electric vehicles reported a record volume of deliveries, though it was less than analysts had expected.

The company said on its website that it delivered more than 400,000 vehicles to customers around the world in the last quarter of 2011. The 418,000 units that were expected were less than that. A total of 1.31 million units were delivered in the year.

During the fourth quarter production in China, the biggest source of profit for the Austin, Texas-based company, had challenges from the country's shifting policy on Covid-19, swinging from strict efforts to control its spread to a more hands-off approach. The broader economy has been impacted by that, leading to a slowdown in domestic EV demand.

A lot of moving parts but overall would call this better than worst case fears in a jittery macro environment. bulls will not be happy, but we think this was a good performance.

Concerns that Musk has left the company without focused leadership as competition in the EV space grows have left the company without a plan for the future. He called for Musk to name a new CEO by the end of January and set more conservative annual growth targets for the company.

It's impossible to tell from Monday's release where sales are most robust and where they're slowing because the company didn't give details about demand by global region. The results of the quarter will be released on January 25.

In the fourth quarter, a total of 388,131 vehicles were delivered to the public, of which 17,147 were Model S and Model X. Last year, the company built 1.37 million vehicles.

The year ended with the company's shares trading at $123.18. Stock exchanges in the US are closed on New Year's Day.