1 month ago
11
Tesla’s Cybertruck was the third best-selling electric vehicle in the United States in the third quarter, beating out every other EV not made by Tesla. The only two vehicles that sold better were the Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV.
The polarizing truck notched this achievement despite selling at its most expensive trim model in the early going. It’s also a sign of just how much trouble major automakers like Ford and General Motors have run into in finding customers for their own EVs.
To wit, Ford only sold around 7,000 F-150 Lightnings in the third quarter, and just over 13,000 Mustang Mach-E SUVs, according to sales data from the automaker. GM has seemingly found some early success with its new Blazer and Equinox EVs, but still only sold around 32,000 electric vehicles total last quarter. Rivian only delivered around 3,800 of its own electric pickup.
Automotive research firm Kelley Blue Book pegged Tesla’s Cybertruck sales as third-best last week; Tesla confirmed the accomplishment Wednesday when it released its financial results for the third quarter.
Tesla also revealed it generated $25.2 billion in sales during the quarter, and notched a $2.2 billion profit. Tesla’s profit was boosted by $739 million in sales of regulatory credits to other automakers — the second-highest amount it’s ever sold in a quarter, behind the second quarter of this year when it sold $890 million worth. Tesla said its profits were also boosted by the fact that it started shipping its Actually Smart Summon feature and its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software to Cybertruck owners, which allowed the company to recognize some of the money owners paid up-front as revenue.
Tesla’s relentless cost-cutting also plays into its profit figure. Tesla said in the shareholder letter that the cost of goods sold per vehicle is down to $35,100.
Those Q3 figures helped push Tesla’s stock price up more than 9% in after-hours trading.
Cost-cutting isn’t helping every part of the business, though. Tesla reported a 20% year-over-year growth in Supercharger stations, its slowest growth figure in years. This comes after Tesla gutted — and then started rehiring some of — its Supercharger team earlier this year as part of a massive company-wide layoff.
Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.
Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news
English (US) ·