Tesla Vehicle Deliveries Disappoint Analysts

Tesla Inc. published a compilation of analyst estimates for vehicle deliveries on its website, and the averages for the current quarter are more pessimistic than those gathered by Bloomberg, Craig Trudell reported for Bloomberg News.

Tesla’s sales plunged early in the year as the company retooled production lines at each of its assembly plants for the redesigned Model Y, its most popular vehicle. (Photo: Nasdaq Exchange X)

By Tesla’s count, analysts on average expect the company to deliver 422,850 cars in the fourth quarter, down 15% from a year earlier.

That compares with a Bloomberg-compiled average of 445,061 vehicles, a 10% drop. While Tesla’s investor relations team has compiled average delivery estimates for years, the company has not previously shared the figures on its IR page.

The carmaker is on course for its second consecutive decline in annual vehicle sales, having compiled an average estimate of 1.6 million deliveries, down more than 8% from a year earlier.

Tesla’s sales plunged early in the year as the company retooled production lines at each of its assembly plants for the redesigned Model Y, its most popular vehicle.

That period also coincided with Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk playing a polarizing role in the Trump administration.

Deliveries jumped to a record in the third quarter as U.S. consumers rushed to buy electric vehicles before $7,500 federal tax credits expired at the end of September.

Tesla partially offset the loss of those incentives at the beginning of the current quarter by rolling out stripped-down versions of the Model Y sport utility vehicle and Model 3 sedan, each priced under $40,000.