Shares of Tesla Inc. powered 4.5% higher Wednesday, after the electric-vehicle giant allayed investor fears by reporting second-quarter deliveries that were pretty close to expectations.

Investors were increasingly anticipating a bad number, given several recent reports of sales weakness in Europe and China. To add to the anxiety, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk renewed his feud with President Donald Trump this week by criticizing the budget bill that barely passed the Senate.

Tesla said it delivered 384,122 EVs in the quarter, down from 444,000 vehicles in the same period a year ago. That was just below the FactSet consensus of 387,000 vehicles, but up from 336,681 vehicles in the first quarter. The latest quarter's delivery total includes 373,728 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Wall Street's "whisper number" for deliveries, which is what analysts were actually expecting without making those estimates public, was closer to 365,000 vehicles.

Tesla also said it produced 410,244 vehicles during the latest quarter, down slightly from 410,831 a year ago.

The numbers come after the China Passenger Car Association had published earlier Wednesday estimates for new-energy car sales in June. Tesla was seen selling 71,599 vehicles in June, up 0.8% from a year ago, but that trailed the growth in overall new-energy-vehicle sales in China of about 30%.

Wedbush's Ives said that marked the first monthly increase in sales for Tesla in eight months.