Tesla sold a record number of cars in the first three months of the year after Elon Musk slashed prices in the face of growing competition from rivals, The Telegraph reported.

The world’s most valuable carmaker delivered 422,875 vehicles in the first quarter, it said on Sunday.

This surpassed Tesla’s previous record of 405,278 at the end of last year, and was up 36pc on the same quarter last year.

Tesla has cut the price of its most popular cars, the Model 3 and Model Y, in response to steadily increasing competition, particularly in China where the company is being challenged by a wave of upstart electric car manufacturers.

Musk, Tesla’s chief executive and the world’s second-richest man, admitted last year that the cost of its cars had become “embarrassingly high.”

The company held an investor day last month to outline how it planned to make production more efficient in an attempt to cut prices.

Musk has said he wants to produce a truly mass market vehicle that would cost $25,000.

Tesla’s Model 3 and Y accounted for almost all the sales. The more expensive models S and X made up just 10,615 of the total delivered to customers.

Musk has said that production of its long-delayed Cybertruck pickup, which was first unveiled in 2019, will begin later this year.

More than 1 million people are believed to have placed pre-orders for the vehicle.