Tesla's sales slumped for the 2nd quarter in a row, but things weren't as bad as investors feared

Tesla has sought to increase its sales with financing offers and reduced prices. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

• Tesla sales were down nearly 5% in the second quarter.
• The performance wasn't as bad as analysts had expected.
• Tesla's stock rose more than 8% following the news.

Tesla's sales fell for the second straight quarter, down nearly 5% compared with the same period a year ago.

While the decline in deliveries is yet another sign that an industrywide electric-vehicle slowdown is finally affecting Elon Musk's Tesla, Tuesday's numbers were not as bad as some analysts had expected, sending the stock up more than 8%.

Dan Ives of Wedbush, a longtime Tesla bull, called the second-quarter sales results "a huge comeback performance" for the EV company.

"In a nutshell, the worst is in the rearview mirror for Tesla as we believe the EV demand story is starting to return," Ives wrote in a note to clients.

Tesla reported second-quarter sales of 443,956 units Tuesday morning, down about 4.7% from the same quarter a year ago — but above Wall Street expectations.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected Tesla to deliver 439,302 cars in the quarter, a roughly 6% decline compared with last year.

Tesla is graded on a curve

When you're gauging Tesla's performance, it's important not to get bogged down in the hard numbers — at least, so say its most ardent supporters.

In the first quarter, Tesla reported a huge earnings miss after posting some of its worst delivery results in years. Yet Tesla's stock reversed a weekslong free fall in the days following the earnings report.

Despite a mile long list of unkept promises, Musk keeps investors' trust by consistently defying expectations when his back is against the wall. Take, for example, the once seemingly doomed Model 3.

While it felt the pinch of the EV slowdown at the start of this year, Tesla's barometer for success on Wall Street no longer appears tied to its growth.

Rather, Musk and his EV company are rewarded handsomely so long as the company's performance is not as bad as we all expect and Musk provides Wall Street with a plan for even more growth.

Most recently, that plan has hinged on an artificial-intelligence-driven robo-taxi fleet that Musk is set to provide more details on in August.

Tesla is set to release its second-quarter financial results on July 23 after the market close.

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