Tesla reports record vehicle deliveries in Q3 despite pandemic

San Francisco: Electric-car maker Tesla has delivered a record 1,39,300 vehicles in the third quarter, beating the earlier estimates of 1,34,720 vehicles.

The company produced 1,28,044 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and delivered 1,24,100 of those.

As for the Model S and Model X, it produced 16,992 of the vehicles and delivered 15,200.

"In terms of days of sales, new vehicle inventory declined further in Q3 as we continue to improve our delivery efficiency," Tesla said in a statement on Friday.

The number is a big improvement from Q2 when Tesla delivered 90,650 cars.

That quarter was tough for Tesla as the company was in partial lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company is expecting to deliver 5,00,000 vehicles in 2020, or a 36 per cent increase over 2019.

But so far the EV maker has only sent out 318,350 cars to customers, meaning it would need to make 1,81,650 deliveries to meet that goal.

"Our net income and cash flow results will be announced along with the rest of our financial performance when we announce Q3 earnings. Our delivery count should be viewed as slightly conservative, as we only count a car as delivered if it is transferred to the customer and all paperwork is correct,'' the company added.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Friday that the electric car maker is finally ready to enter the India market in 2021.

Musk revealed his plans to bring Tesla cars to India in his response to a Twitter post that asked about the progress on Tesla's planned entry into India.

"Next year for sure," Musk said in response to the tweet that posted pictures of T-shirts with "India wants Tesla" and "India loves Tesla" printed on them.

"Thanks for waiting," he added.