Tesla Reports 184,800 Deliveries In 'Drop The Mic' Quarter

Tesla Inc TSLA delivered 184,800 vehicles in the first quarter, handily beating the 168,000 number analysts expected. Estimates ranged from 145,000 to 188,000 deliveries, according to CNBC.

What To Know: "We are encouraged by the strong reception of the Model Y in China and are quickly progressing to full production capacity," the electric vehicle maker said in a press release. "The new Model S and Model X have also been exceptionally well received, with the new equipment installed and tested in Q1 and we are in the early stages of ramping production."

The strong start to 2021 comes off a year in which Tesla delivered a record 499,550 vehicles.

"We believe China and Europe were particularly robust this quarter as the trajectory now puts Musk & Co. to exceed 850k for the year which is well ahead of whisper expectations," Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note Friday morning.

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Why It's Important: Earlier this week, Wedbush said that despite chip shortage facing automakers, Tesla saw strength in China and the U.S. "with EV consumer demand patterns that continued to improve discernible."

Ives said the recent sell-off in EV shares "creates a massive buying opportunity in our opinion to own the Chinese EV players as well as the leader of the pack Tesla heading into this golden age of EVs."

In Friday's note, Ives called the first-quarter deliveries a "drop the mic" moment.

Tesla's stock closed Thursday's session at $661.75. Shares are down about 6.2% in the year-to-date period.