In Europe, electric vehicle sales are slumping after Germany slashed subsidies for buyers. Tesla remains reliant on just two cars — the Model Y sport utility vehicle and the Model 3 sedan — for most of its sales, while rivals like G.M. and Hyundai-Kia offer more choices, newer designs and often lower prices.

Tesla sold almost 463,000 vehicles in the three months to the end of September. This was 6 per cent higher than the same period last year and 4 per cent above the previous quarter.

Tesla Inc. is expected to post its first quarterly sales increase this year after car buyers in China, the world’s largest electric vehicle market, seized on a sweetened government incentive.

Tesla's global deliveries rose in the third quarter, the first increase this year for the electric vehicle maker

Low interest financing, sweet lease deals and free charging boosted Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter, the first increase this year for the electric vehicle maker. Tesla’s deliveries rose after falling in the first and second quarters.

Wednesday at $249.02 The deliveries were "good and a step in the right direction," wrote Dan Ives of Wedbush, but that there would be pressure on the company's stock because investors had been hoping for even better.