Tesla sales surge as Musk’s China bet pays off

Elon Musk's Tesla delivered 184,800 cars worldwide in the first quarter

Dana Hull and Yueqi Yang

April 06 2021 02:30 AM

Tesla’s estimate-smashing deliveries of electric vehicles in the first quarter suggest boss Elon Musk’s bet on growth in China and Europe is starting to pay off.

The results marked a strong start to a year in which Mr Musk, the company’s chief executive officer, is counting on global operations to help scale-up production and sales.

The shares jumped after Palo Alto, California-based Tesla said it delivered 184,800 cars worldwide in the year’s first three months. The figures trounced the 169,850 average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts and beat the fourth-quarter figure by about 4,000 vehicles.

The quarter was “a massive home run in the eyes of the bulls”, Dan Ives at Wedbush wrote in a research note. On Sunday, he upgraded Tesla to outperform from neutral, and raised his 12-month price target for the stock to $1,000 (€850), from $950. Tesla’s shares could hit $1,300 in a long-term bull case scenario, he said.

“The first quarter delivery numbers released on Friday was a paradigm changer and shows that the pent-up demand globally for Tesla’s Model 3/Y is hitting its next stage of growth as part of a global green tidal wave under way.”