Sales have now increased every quarter for six successive quarters and it appears that the company has managed to handle chip shortages far better than many of its competitors.
In Q3 sales were ahead 20 per cent on the previous quarter at 241,000 vehicles and up 73 per cent on a year earlier.
The company has benefited from strong on-going demand from China, rising exports to Europe and the introduction of a cheaper Model Y which has lifted production.
This performance was certainly impressive and beat Wall Street estimates and came after the company’s Chief Executive Elon Musk had asked staff to "go super hardcore" to make a quarter-end delivery push.
It’s interesting that while Musk acknowledged that the company had suffered an extremely severe parts shortage, Q3 represented an unusually high ‘delivery wave’ with staff raising production levels.
Tesla’s success comes as many of its rivals struggle. General Motors and Honda have seen sales stumble and have been forced by chip shortages to cut production significantly. GM's third-quarter sales in the US fell nearly 33% to its lowest level in more than a decade.
