Tesla Production, Deliveries Had A Record Quarter Ahead Of Model 3 Launch

Electric car maker Tesla, Inc. had a record quarter from January to March 2017, during which it both produced and delivered the highest number of vehicles for any quarter so far. In a Sunday update, the Elon Musk company said it “delivered just over 25,000 vehicles” during the first quarter of the year.

The announcement also broke down the deliveries into about 13,450 Model S sedans and another 11,550 or so Model X SUVs. The statement added: “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. Final numbers could vary by up to 0.5 percent.”

Read: Tesla Discontinuing Cheapest Model S Variant From April 16

The number represents a significant 69 percent increase over the same quarter in 2016, and a more modest 12 percent increase from the October-December 2016 quarter. Tesla did not count in the first quarter deliveries of about 4,650 vehicles that were in transit to customers at the end of March; those vehicles will be added to the second quarter delivery count.

Production of vehicles during the January-March quarter was at 25,418 cars, up from 24,882 vehicles manufactured during the last quarter of 2016. However, the company has produced over 25,000 cars in a quarter earlier as well, in the July-September period of 2016, when 25,185 vehicles rolled off the assembly lines.

However, at the current rate (slightly over 100,000 cars a year), Tesla is still a long way from its 2018 production target of 500,000 vehicles annually. Also, given the upcoming launch of the company’s first “mass-market” sedan, the Model 3, ramping up production takes on more urgency for the automaker. Based on an analysis of the company’s cash-flow, it could have over 400,000 bookings for the upcoming sedan. Tesla itself hasn’t given any updates on this number since confirming 373,000 booking on May 15, 2016.

But the company is in the process of raising $1.15 billion from the market, part of which will go toward helping scale up production for the Model 3.