Tesla Prioritizing Volume Over Profit

Similarly to what happened after its last two quarterly earnings reports, Tesla's Q3 results published on Wednesday led to the EV giant's share price dropping by over 4 percent in overnight trading. After the company implemented global price cuts as much as 20 percent in January, CEO Musk's strategy of investing in long-term market share over short-term profit led to a ten point y-o-y drop in gross profit margin in Q1, a seven point drop in Q2 and now also in Q3.

With the focus now firmly on volume, the company reported a quarterly deliveries record of 466,140 vehicles in Q2: 83 percent more than Q2 2022. With Musk and Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja citing worsening consumer sentiment in the face of wars developing around the world, Q3 saw a dip to 435,059.

Despite Tesla's impressive rise to prominence in its native North America, a look at the company's market share around the world underscores the reasoning behind its drastic push for sales volume at (almost) any cost. Tesla's home market dominance has only been replicated to any significant degree in Australia and Oceania. In Asia, for example, Chinese manufacturer Wuling is in pole position, while Volkswagen has the lead in Europe.