Tesla delivers more than one million electric cars over past year

Chief executive Elon Musk calls recent months 'an exceptionally difficult quarter'

Tesla deliveries rose a minuscule 0.4 per cent since the fourth quarter of last year. Reuters

US electric car manufacturer Tesla shipped a record number of more than one million cars over the past year, figures published on Saturday showed.

The company delivered 1.06 million cars from April 2021 to March 2022, including more than 310,000 cars in the first quarter of this year alone, which is 67 per cent higher than over the same period last year.

Still, the figure fell short of analysts' expectations of 317,000 cars, data compiled by FactSet showed.

Deliveries are considered similar to sales figures published by other manufacturers.

Growth, however, slowed sharply in recent months for the Austin, Texas-based company, with deliveries rising a minuscule 0.4 per cent since the fourth quarter of last year.

The number of vehicles produced is also slightly down against the previous quarter (-0.1 per cent).

“This was an exceptionally difficult quarter due to supply chain interruptions & China zero Covid policy,” Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said on Twitter, referring to China's strict health restrictions. “Outstanding work by Tesla team & key suppliers saved the day.”

However, Tesla is still faring better than its competitors, with the entire car industry affected by supply-chain snarls.

Toyota's sales in North America fell 23.5 per cent in volume in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same period last year, and 26.3 per cent in value.

General Motors earned a profit of $1.7 billion for the quarter ending December 31, down 38.7 per cent from the final three months of 2020 as revenue dropped 10.5 per cent to $33.6 billion.