Tesla had a really, really good third quarter

If its latest sales figures are anything to go by, the magic of Tesla is continuing to enchant. 

As per reporting by The Verge, Elon Musk's Silicon Valley start-up reported on 20 October 2021 that it had turned a third-quarter profit of $1.6 billion - its most profitable quarter on record. 

The financial success of the EV-maker was largely driven by sales of its entry-level Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV, as well as the low production costs enabled by its China plant. Set up in 2019, Giga Shanghai now also exports Teslas to overseas markets. 

Most crucially, what used to be the tallest hurdle faced by the company is now its calling card. Tesla managed to increase global deliveries to 241,000 units in the last quarter - a petite figure compared to those of the biggest automakers, but nonetheless a healthy bump - side-stepping the chip shortage in a manner that other larger players haven’t quite managed to. The company’s tech roots appear to have helped immensely in this regard - it apparently managed to rewrite its software to run on different chips. 

Zooming in as well on the Singaporean market, the electric carmaker is also showing signs that it may just be capable of chewing up its older and more established competitors. 

Jumping nearly 100% from the previous month, LTA data shows that Tesla recorded 314 new car registrations in September, trailing only German luxury brands, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, Japanese powerhouses, Toyota and Honda, and finally, Korean mainstay, Hyundai (there has been chatter linking this phenomenon to the latest surge in COE premiums). To give you an idea of how close the margin was, Hyundai had 317 new car registrations. 

That means that in September, Tesla placed ahead of brands from the world's second largest carmaker, Volkswagen and Audi, and also overtook marques with a long and trusted history in Singapore, including the once-dominant Nissan, as well as Mazda and Kia. As noted by Vulcan Post, Tesla, being a manufacturer of only electric cars, now has the largest EV presence in Singapore, achieving this in a mere two months. 

Of course, going off new car registrations in a single month alone isn't entirely fair. One could also attribute the carmaker's early success to its still-fresh status in Singapore, since it only set up shop officially this year. We have to stay tuned to see if Tesla will be able to clinch a spot in the Year-end Top 10 - unlikely, but definitely not impossible - considering that it only really got deliveries off the ground in the second half of 2021. 

Still, the latest numbers bode well for the carmaker - both internationally and locally - and appear to legitimise the early faith Tesla had in its entry-level Model 3 as the warrior that would help it break into the mainstream.