(Reuters) – Tesla Inc. vehicle registrations in the U.S. state of California rose nearly 63 percent in the fourth quarter from last year, largely due to the success of the company’s Model Y, according to data from Cross-Sell here, a research firm which collects the title and registration data.
The carmaker reported better-than-expected vehicle deliveries in 2020 earlier this month, driven by a steady increase in electric vehicle adoption, even though it easily missed its ambitious target of half a million deliveries over a punitive year for global car industry. .
The report released on Wednesday showed California registrations, a pressure factor for the electric carmaker and the largest US market, recovered from a low in the third quarter of about 16,200 vehicles to about 22,117 vehicles in the three months ended December.
Approximately 11,417, state records for the Tesla Model Y compact crossover commercial vehicle surpassed those for the Model 3. California registrations for the Tesla Model 3 sedan on the mass market fell 34% annually to 7,044.
The total number of vehicle registrations in the fourth quarter of the 23 states in which data were collected was 44,749, with Model Y accounting for almost half of registrations.
Registration numbers may not accurately reflect the number of vehicle deliveries during the quarter, as registrations in the United States typically take approximately 30 days from the time of sale.
Tesla, whose shares rose more than 700% in 2020, is expected to report fourth-quarter results after closing on January 27.
Reporting by Akanksha Rana and Ayanti Bera in Bengaluru and Tina Bellon in New York; Montage of Vinay Dwivedi