Tesla's global sales drop again as competition, Musk backlash bite
Still, shares of the electric carmaker gained 3 per cent in early trading as the decline proved less severe than the bleakest analyst projections.
Tesla said it delivered 384,122 vehicles in the second quarter, down 13.5 per cent from 443,956 units a year ago.
Analysts expected it to report deliveries of about 394,378 vehicles, according to an average of 23 estimates from Visible Alpha, though projections went as low as 360,080 units based on estimates from 10 analysts over the past month.
'The market is reacting to the deliveries not being as bad as potentially thought with multiple analysts cutting their forecasts over the past week,' said Seth Goldstein, senior equity analyst at Morningstar.
The stock has lost 25 per cent of its value so far this year as investors feared brand damage in Europe and US from Musk's embrace of right-wing politics and his role in spearheading the Trump administration's cost-cutting effort.
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