Tesla Posts Rare Drop in Sales in Second Quarter

Lockdowns at Covid in China caused an unusual decline in Tesla second-quarter production and sales. In comparison to the first three months of the year, the electric car manufacturer revealed that completed sales fell by over 18%, to around 255,000 units, in the second quarter. Production dropped by 15% to 259,000.

Due to citywide lockdown regulations intended to counteract an uptick in Covid cases, the company’s plant in Shanghai was closed for a number of weeks in April. Even when the facility reopened, Tesla output was constrained by issues obtaining components from its vendors. According to Dan Ives, a tech analyst for Wedbush Securities, the lockdowns probably cost production of approximately 70,000 vehicles in the quarter.

According to the company’s statement, the problems Tesla had in the first three months of the quarter are now mostly resolved. The statement read, “June 2022 was the largest car production month in history, despite continued supply chain problems and facility shutdowns beyond our control. “In its monthly report on sales and manufacturing, Tesla does not provide the breakdown of sales by geography. According to corporate documents, only 45% of its income came from US sales last year. Due to the lockdowns, automobile sales nationwide in a large portion of China ceased for the most of the quarter. The majority of Tesla sales outside the US come from automobiles made in Shanghai.

Nevertheless, it was the first time since early 2020 that the company’s sales or output fell short of expectations. The lockdowns brought on by the early worldwide Covid epidemic also contributed to that sales fall. Such decreases have been uncommon for the rapidly expanding corporation. Despite a decline in output and sales compared to the first quarter of 2022, the firm reported a 25% gain in production and a 27% increase in delivery, thus both metrics were higher than year-ago levels.