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Tesla says it sold a record 1.3 million vehicles last year, but the number fell short of CEO Elon Musk’s pledge to grow the company’s sales by 50 per cent nearly every year.
The 2022 figure topped the prior record of 936,000 vehicles delivered in 2021, but was shy of the 1.4 million needed to reach the company’s growth target.
Sales grew 40 per cent year over year, while production climbed 47 per cent to 1.37 million.
The shortfall came despite a major year-end sales push that included rare NZ$12,000 discounts in the US on the Models Y and 3, the company’s top-selling models.
Tesla Inc., which is based in Austin, Texas, also had to deal with rising cases of Covid-19 in China, which cut into production at its Shanghai factory.
With the extra US push, Tesla delivered more than 405,000 vehicles worldwide in the fourth quarter.
But that missed Wall Street projections. Analysts polled by data provider FactSet expected 427,000 deliveries from October through December and 1.33 million for the full year.
“Thank you to all of our customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and supporters who helped us achieve a great 2022 in light of significant COVID and supply chain related challenges throughout the year,” the electric vehicle and solar panel company said.
Tesla didn’t roll out any new models last year, and it’s facing increasing competition from legacy automakers and startups such as Lucid and Rivian, which are continually introducing new electric vehicles.
But Musk has promised to start producing the long-awaited Cybertruck electric pickup this year. The company also has started delivering its electric semis.
The discounts, offered during the last two weeks of the year, raised questions about whether demand was softening for Tesla products as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to combat inflation.
Elon Musk faced a celebrity exodus, backlash from advertisers and new imposter accounts after taking over Twitter. Photo / Herald montage, AP, Getty Images
That, coupled with Musk’s behaviour after his NZ$71 billion purchase of Twitter, helped to push Tesla shares down more than 65 per cent last year, bumping Musk out of the top spot for the world’s wealthiest person, according to Forbes.
The company’s stock decline for the year, its worst ever, was more than triple the drop in the S&P 500, which was down 19.4 per cent.
Musk tweeted on December 30 that the company’s long-term fundamentals are strong, but “short-term market madness” is unpredictable.
Some investors are worried that Twitter has distracted Musk from the car company. Musk said last month he plans to remain as Twitter’s CEO until he can find someone willing to replace him in the job.
