Tesla just followed up a vehicle deliveries report that fell short of expectations with quarterly revenue that also was a bit lower than hoped, disappointing investors looking for a more clear-cut answer on the debate over whether the automaker is starting to have demand issues.
Elon Musk has a broad target to grow sales around 50 percent annually. While the company now expects to fall just short of that mark this year, one of its models is climbing toward the top of global sales rankings.
Tesla does not disclose the split in sales between its Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV, but given the latter’s performance, maybe it should.
BloombergNEF estimates that the company sold around 200,000 Model Ys in the third quarter, bringing the total so far this year to more than 500,000. That means the SUV is broadly on pace to hit our estimate, published at the beginning of the year, of almost 800,000 — enough to comfortably place it among the top five best-selling vehicles in the world.