Tesla calms fears with strong sales numbers

A tumultuous quarter at Tesla ended with some very good sales numbers.

The company delivered 83,500 vehicles during the third quarter, a strong performance that should calm investor fears about logistical problems and a looming cash crunch. That included almost 56,000 of the lower-priced Model 3.

Production was a bit below that number: Tesla said it built about 53,000 Model 3s. But that was within the company’s projections.

Only three months ago, the company struggled to build 5,000 Model 3s in a week, a long-delayed target. Tesla did not maintain that pace, but production was still high enough to keep the company on track to turn a sustained profit for the first time.

Tesla was sorely in need of good news.

In August, CEO Elon Musk proposed, then abandoned, plans to take the company private. The SEC sued Musk last week, claiming he had deceived investors by claiming in a tweet that he had secured financing to go private.

On Saturday, the second to last day of the quarter, Musk reached a deal with the SEC to pay a $ 20 million fine and step aside as chairman of Tesla. He will remain as CEO, news that relieved Wall Street on Monday.

Tesla will release revenue and profit numbers later in the quarter. Tesla (TSLA) stock rose in premarket trading on the production and sales report.