Tesla, an electric car manufacturer, said that it delivered a record-breaking 1.3 million units in 2018, which is a 40% increase over 2021.
This comes as a result of the fact that the corporation supplied over 405,000 automobiles in the last three months of 2022.
However, the predictions made by Wall Street for the time were about 430,000 deliveries, thus this statistic fell short of their expectations.
It is anticipated that this year the automotive sector will see a slowdown in demand because prospective buyers are concerned about increasing interest rates and economic recession.
Tesla explained its struggles to investors in a statement, saying the company faced “major difficulties throughout the year relating to both the Covid and supply chain.”
In the meanwhile, on Tuesday, the authorities in South Korea announced that they will punish Tesla $2.2 million (£1.8 million) for failing to inform its consumers about the reduced range of its electric cars when exposed to cold temperatures.
According to the Korea Fair Trade Commission, the corporation has inflated the “driving ranges of its automobiles on a single charge, their fuel cost-effectiveness compared to gasoline vehicles, as well as the performance of its Superchargers.”
The fact that Tesla delivered around 34,000 fewer vehicles than it manufactured in the fourth quarter of the year is illustrative of the difficulties that the company has with its supply chain operations.
This is a rare occurrence for Tesla, since the company has previously been able to deliver around the same number of automobiles as it manufactured.
Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of the company, said in October that he was trying to remedy the problem.
Tesla, much like other automakers, is facing the problem of the possibility for a slowdown in demand for automobiles in the year ahead. This difficulty arises from the fact that consumers are dealing with increased financing rates and fears about an economic downturn.
Rivian and Lucid in the United States, as well as BYD and Nio in China, are some of the younger entrants to the market that Tesla must contend with. Tesla also faces competition from conventional automotive manufacturing giants like as Ford and General Motors.
On January 25, 2022, the corporation is expected to make an announcement about the financial performance of the fourth quarter of 2022 as well as the year as a whole.
In a second statement, Tesla confirmed that the company would hold its Investor Day on March 1 and will webcast the event from its Gigafactory in Texas.
Investors were concerned about delays to manufacturing, fears about a downturn in demand, and Mr. Musk’s concentration on Twitter in 2022, which led to a decline in Tesla’s share price of 65%. This was the company’s worst year since it went public in 2010.
Since the multibillionaire purchased the social media platform at the end of October for $44 billion (about £36.4 billion), he has devoted a significant amount of his time to attempting to turn the company’s fortunes around.
