Tesla Sales Roared Back In Q2, After Months Of Downward Spiraling

The automaker saw a massive spike in second quarter sales despite rocky demand for EVs in the U.S.

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Suvrat Kothari

By: Suvrat Kothari

Jul 2, at 12:08pm ET

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Tesla sales rebounded massively in the second quarter, after months of steep declines.
U.S. sales growth is unclear, but ACEA data points to a huge surge in Tesla's sales in the European Union.
The automaker's energy storage businesses also witnessed robust growth.

Tesla's global deliveries rebounded sharply in the second quarter, defying Wall Street expectations after two consecutive quarters of sales declines. The automaker's passenger vehicle business has been struggling amid its pivot to AI and robotics, but the latest numbers show its aging lineup still has some legs.

Tesla reported 480,126 deliveries in the second quarter, a nearly 25% year-over-year jump. The vast majority of those sales came from the Model Y and Model 3, which together accounted for 467,762 deliveries during the period. Its other models, including the Cybertruck and the now-discontinued Model S and Model X, made up the remaining 12,364 deliveries, up 19% year-over-year.

Just a few days earlier, Tesla had shared a company-compiled delivery consensus from 22 Wall Street analysts, including Wedbush Securities, Morgan Stanley, and Barclays. That consensus put Tesla's second-quarter deliveries at just 406,024 units. The automaker blew past that number by more than 74,000 units.

The majority of this growth appears to have come from Europe, where Tesla sales have been climbing for months. Tesla doesn’t break down regional sales, sharing only the global tally in its quarterly sales reports, but registration data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association paints a clear picture.

In the January-May period this year, Tesla sales in the European Union jumped 77% year-over-year, growing from 50,309 units to 89,180 units. In May alone, Tesla sold 21,767 units in the EU. EV adoption on the continent is far ahead of the U.S., and the recent spike in oil prices tied to the war in Iran may have given Tesla's European sales an added boost.

Beyond EV sales, Tesla's energy storage business also saw robust growth. The automaker deployed 13.5 gigawatt-hours worth of energy storage batteries, up from 9.6 GWh during the same period last year. Tesla's ESS business has been a bright spot amid its falling EV sales over the past two years, driven by demand from power-hungry AI data centers and the broader growth of renewable energy worldwide, where the need to store surplus energy is growing.

Tesla’s capex expenditure this year exceeds $25 billion, which will go toward developing and manufacturing its Optimus humanoid robot, scaling its robotaxi business, and building out its battery and AI infrastructure projects.

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The rebound in its core passenger vehicle business will be crucial to bankrolling those efforts. The question now is whether this is a one-off quarter of growth, or the start of something sustainable over the next several quarters.

Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com