Tesla’s Cybertruck was the third best-selling electric vehicle in the United States in the third quarter, beating all other electric vehicles not made by Tesla. The only two vehicles that sold better were the Model 3 sedan and the Model Y SUV.
The polarizing truck landed this feat despite selling its most expensive trim model early on. It is also a sign of the difficulties faced by major automakers like Ford and General Motors in finding customers for their own electric vehicles.
To wit, Ford only sold about 7,000 F-150 Lightnings in the third quarter and just over 13,000 Mustang Mach-E SUVs, according to the automaker’s sales data. GM has apparently had some success with its new Blazer and Equinox electric vehicles, but has only sold about 32,000 electric vehicles. total last quarter. Rivian has only delivered around 3,800 examples of its own electric pickup.
Automotive research firm Kelley Blue Book ranked Tesla’s Cybertruck sales third last week; Tesla confirmed the feat on Wednesday when it released its third-quarter financial results.
Tesla also revealed that it generated $25.2 billion in revenue during the quarter and made a profit of $2.2 billion. Tesla’s profit was boosted by $739 million in sales of regulatory credits to other automakers – the second-highest amount ever sold in a quarter, behind the second quarter of this year, when it sold for a value of 890 million dollars. Tesla said its profits were also boosted by the fact that it began offering its Actually Smart Summon feature and fully autonomous (supervised) driving software to Cybertruck owners, helping the company recognize part of the money paid in advance by the owners as income. .
Tesla’s relentless cost reductions are also impacting its profits. Tesla said in the letter to shareholders that the cost of goods sold per vehicle had fallen to $35,100.
Those third-quarter numbers helped push Tesla’s stock price up more than 9% after hours.
However, cost cutting does not help all areas of the business. Tesla reported 20% year-over-year growth at Supercharger stations, its slowest growth figure in years. This comes after Tesla gutted – and then began rehiring some of – its Supercharger team earlier this year as part of a massive company-wide layoff.