Tesla sales jump 52% for 2nd quarter of 2015

Tesla Motors launched some fireworks of its own during the Fourth of July Weekend, announcing record sales for the second quarter of 2015.

Tesla's 11,507 sales from April to June represents a 52 percent jump from the same period last year. It is also a 14.7 percent increase over the previous record set during the first quarter. The company sold 10,030 cars from January to March, up 55 percent from the first quarter of 2014.

Total sales for the year place Tesla at less than half of its goal of selling 55,000 vehicles this year. In addition to the company's Model S vehicles, the goal will include sales of the upcoming Model X SUV. The company is eyeing a late third-quarter release for the new vehicle, according to a letter to shareholders sent out in May.

Increasing production also was a big emphasis for the company in its shareholder letter. During an appearance at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk says demand for the company's vehicles still outstrips supply.

"We're demand constrained," Musk said. "I wish we weren't but we are."

One factor in the production equation is battery pack manufacturing, which Tesla aims to address with the Gigafactory 1 plant being built just east of Reno-Sparks. The plant is scheduled to start manufacturing cells and modules in 2016 and is expected to boost battery production while also bringing costs down. In addition to producing battery backs for Tesla' vehicles, the gigafactory will also manufacture batteries for the company's new Tesla Energy line of residential and commercial storage batteries. Tesla currently has a partnership with SolarCity, which counts Musk as its chairman, to install the batteries to supplement the latter's solar panels.

Batteries such as Tesla Energy's products will play a big role in the growth of the distributed storage sector moving forward, SolarCity spokesman Jonathan Bass told the Reno Gazette-Journal earlier this year. The gigafactory is especially crucial due to its ability to bring costs down as Tesla Energy battery production shifts from Tesla's Fremont plant to the Reno area facility.

"In the future, we expect the cost of battery technology to come down and it will become an important part of the grid in the future," Bass said.