Shares of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) were sharply higher in premarket trading after the electric vehicle maker reported stronger than expected first quarter delivery numbers.
Tesla announced that it delivered 184,800 vehicles and produced 180,338 cars in this year’s first quarter. Analysts had been expecting Tesla to deliver 168,000 vehicles during the quarter.
The latest deliveries beat Tesla’s previous record of 180,570 vehicles delivered in the fourth quarter of 2020.
All the electric vehicles Tesla produced in the quarter were Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossover sport utility vehicles (SUVs). The company said it didn’t produce any of its more expensive Model S sedans and Model X SUVs during the first quarter.
Tesla delivered 2,020 Model S and Model X vehicles from inventory, however, representing just 1% of its total deliveries. In a statement, Tesla wrote that with “new equipment installed and tested in Q1” the company is now “in the early stages of ramping production” for updated versions of the S and X.
The new Model S plaid is a luxury sedan that the company says can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in less than two seconds, and that can seat up to seven people with third-row seats. Tesla’s Model S and X have a higher average sales price than the S and Y. The Model S plaid costs as much as $149,990.
Tesla’s latest delivery numbers represented more than a 100% increase from the same period last year when the company first began deliveries and volume production of the Model Y electric vehicle. However, Tesla Q1 deliveries increased by just 2% from the quarter ending 2020 when Tesla delivered 180,570 vehicles.
Deliveries are the closest approximation to sales numbers reported by Tesla. The company’s share price was up 7% in pre-market trading at $708.74.