In unusual move, Tesla broadcasts downbeat car sales estimates

Tesla Inc. published a compilation of analyst estimates for vehicle deliveries to its website, and the averages for the current quarter are more pessimistic than those gathered by Bloomberg.

By Tesla’s count, analysts on average expect the company to deliver 422,850 cars in the fourth quarter, down 15% from a year earlier.

That compares with a Bloomberg-compiled average of 445,061 vehicles, a 10% drop.

While Tesla’s investor relations team has compiled average delivery estimates for years, the company hasn’t shared the figures on its investors’ page in the past.

The carmaker is on course for its second consecutive decline in annual vehicle sales, having compiled an average estimate for 1.6 million deliveries, down more than 8% from a year earlier.

Tesla’s sales plunged early in the year as the company retooled production lines at each of its assembly plants for the redesigned Model Y, its most popular vehicle.

That period also coincided with Chief Executive Elon Musk playing a polarizing role in the Trump administration.

Deliveries jumped to a record in the third quarter, when U.S. consumers rushed to buy electric vehicles before $7,500 federal tax credits ceased at the end of September.

Tesla partially offset the loss of those incentives at the beginning of the current quarter by rolling out stripped-down versions of the Model Y sport utility vehicle and Model 3 sedan, each priced at under $40,000.

Tesla’s stock is poised to end the year higher despite its vehicle sales slump. The shares were up 14% through Monday’s close, trailing the 17% rise in the S&P 500 Index.

Trudell writes for Bloomberg.