Tesla posts first sales gain of the year but shares fall as competition heats up

The company delivered nearly 463,000 vehicles worldwide in the third quarter, up 6% from its year ago sales figure and up 4% from the total delivered in the second quarter of this year.

Tesla’s history of steady year-over-year sales gains, and its forecast of continued gains, is one of the reasons its stock has the highest market value by a large margin of any automaker in the world.

But the company is facing increased competition from established automakers who are offering more electric vehicle models of their own.

The first and second quarters of this year saw Tesla report drops in sales of 9% and 5%, respectively, the first time in the company’s history that it reported two consecutive quarters of declining sales. Even with the increased sales reported Wednesday, its year-to-to-date deliveries of 1.3 million vehicles is down 2% from a year ago.

General Motors reported Tuesday that its US EV sales climbed 60% compared to a year ago and 46% compared to the second quarter. But GM still had only a fraction of Tesla’s sales, with US EV sales coming in at 32,000 vehicles. Tesla doesn’t break out sales by market so its precise US sales are not known.

Tesla is also facing increased competition from Chinese automakers’ EV offerings, especially in Europe. During this latest quarter, Tesla stayed ahead of Chinese automaker BYD, which briefly passed Tesla in worldwide EV sales last year. BYD reported global third-quarter battery electric sales of 313,000, and year-to-date sales of 1.2 million EVs. But its year-to-date total is up nearly 12%, contrasting the decline at Tesla.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) fell by around 4% Wednesday, taking shares back to approximately were they were at the start of the year.