US electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc announced on Friday that it delivered a “record” number of vehicles in the first quarter of this year, as it began more timely reporting of sales figures.
The California-based firm started by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk said it sold 10,030 cars in the first three months of this year.
“This was a new company record for the most cars delivered in a quarter and represents a 55 percent increase over the first quarter last year,” the company said in a statement.
Photo: Bloomberg
Going forward, Tesla said it would publish the number of new car deliveries within three days of the end of each quarter.
“We have decided to take this approach, because inaccurate sources of information are sometimes used by others to project the number of vehicle deliveries,” the statement said. “This is only one measure of our financial performance and should not be relied on as an indicator of our quarterly financial results, which depend on a variety of factors, including the cost of sales, foreign exchange movements and mix of directly leased vehicles.”
Tesla currently produces its luxury Model S — which costs more than US$69,000, but it is planning new vehicles including a more affordable model.
Last year the group sold about 55,000 vehicles.
Tesla has offered to let rivals use its patents for free in an effort to boost the electric car sector and has made efforts to improve the range of its vehicles to ease concerns that they could lose power without a nearby charging station.
Musk said in a Twitter post this week that the company would unveil a “major” new product line next month, leaving analysts guessing. Some reports said Musk was likely referring to a home battery based on a design used in the Tesla vehicles, which he spoke about during a February earnings call.
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