Tesla Motors beat Wall Street’s expectations and sold 7,785 Model S sedans in the third quarter – a record for the company – while also reporting a net loss of $74.7 million.
The electric car maker said in a report released Wednesday that it was only 15 units away from its 7,800 sales target during the July-September quarter. Despite missing the mark by a very small margin, sales are up 41.5 per cent from the same period a year ago.
The overall net loss, however, has almost doubled from the same time last year to about 60 cents per share. The company accounts for the losses and puts the cause on increased research and development costs for the Model X SUV, which is set to go on sale next year, along with the new all-wheel-drive system.
The company also blames the expenses on adding multiple new charging stations in different parts of the world, primarily in Asia. Tesla now has 124 Supercharger stations in the United States, 82 in Europe and 23 in China for an increase of 81 stations worldwide since the beginning of the year. Tesla also launched the Model S in Hong Kong and Japan this year and is expected to introduce the vehicle to the Australian market before the end of 2014. Tesla is also planning to open several battery-swapping stations in California by the end of this year.
Back in July, Tesla had to temporarily shut down its factory in Fremont, California, to increase its production capacity. The shutdown set the company back about 2,000 units, but will allow production to increase by 50 per cent this and next year. Because of this shutdown and increasingly more complex all-wheel-drive models, Tesla projects a decrease of 35,000 Model S vehicles to 33,000.
Tesla also confirmed that its next vehicle, the Model X crossover, will be delayed. Production was projected to begin at the end of this year, but new projections put deliveries for the Model X beginning in the third quarter of 2015.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he wants to make sure to get the details right with the Model X and produce enough prototypes to catch any problems before the vehicles go on sale. Since the company is also facing severe competition from hydrogen-feuled vehicles, like the ones from Toyota, taking extra time probably wouldn’t hurt.
