By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - Tesla surged in after-hours trading on Thursday after its first-quarter deliveries topped analysts estimates, with the electric automaker hailing its "best ever" first quarter of production, despite coronavirus-led disruptions.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was up 10% after the report.
Tesla said it had delivered about 88,400 in the first quarter of 2020, markedly up from 63,000 vehicles delivered a year earlier, and above analysts' expectations for 79,908.
The beat on deliveries arrived as the company said it had a record first quarter, producing 102,672 vehicles as the Shanghai factory continued to achieve record levels of production, even as the Covid-19 outbreak hurt output.
" In the first quarter, we produced almost 103,000 vehicles and delivered approximately 88,400 vehicles. This is our best ever first quarter performance," Tesla said.
Model Y production got underway in January and deliveries started in March, ahead of schedule, the company said.
Ahead of the report, analysts had expressed little optimism that Tesla would deliver impressive first-quarter numbers, and were doubtful about the company hitting its target 500,000 delivery target for this year.
"To this point, we now believe (Tesla) hitting the 500,000 unit delivery threshold for 2020 is a virtual impossibility," Wedbush said, estimating deliveries to within a 400,000 to 425,000 range.