Tesla has surprisingly been able to buck the trend of supply-chain constrains and production slowdowns in the first quarter of 2022, posting a record-setting number of global deliveries.
Tesla says that in the first quarter of 2022, it delivered 310,000 new vehicles, marking a 70 per cent increase over the Q1, 2021, where the company delivered 184,800 units.
In terms of specific models, the more reasonably-priced and high-volume Model 3 and Model Y accounted for 295,324 of that total, with a surprisingly lean 14,724 customer deliveries of the more expensive Model X and Model S.
Tesla is set to report its full financials for the first quarter of 2022 later this month on the back of these stats. Tesla’s chief, Elon Musk took to Twitter to say: “This was an exceptionally difficult quarter, due to supply-chain interruptions and China’s zero-Covid policy.”
China’s stringent approach to managing Covid may well have a significant impact on Tesla’s delivery numbers in the next quarter, though, after Shanghai’s population of 25 million was ordered into lockdown and to be tested for the virus in the past few days.
This has caused Tesla’s Shanghai-based Gigafactory to close temporarily, which produces not only vehicles but also battery components. However, the company is yet to publicly comment on the potential impact.
