Tesla’s sales growth has vanished over the last year-and-a-half, but the company just registered its best quarter of deliveries ever, in large part because buyers rushed to take advantage of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit before it went away.
Tesla delivered 497,099 vehicles over the last three months, the company announced Thursday. That’s a massive 29% jump from the second quarter, about a 7% increase over the same period last year, and more than its ever delivered in a single quarter.
Other automakers in the U.S. have seen similar jumps ahead of the credit expiring. The temptation to take advantage of the expiring credit was so strong that Cox Automotive has forecasted EVs will represent 10% of all vehicle sales in the U.S. for the quarter, which would be a record.
The boost in