Tesla has released it’s 3rd quarter production update. After a tumultuous couple of weeks for the electric car-maker, some good news is finally on the horizon, as the company said that it had managed to meet the production guidelines specified in its Q2 update.
According to the report, the car maker has met the projections in its second-quarter letter to investors. Model 3 production stand at over 53,000 and interestingly, the number is almost midway between the higher and lower limits of the projected forecast range. The report also said that Model 3 car deliveries had also increased and in fact, tripled and reached 56,000.
Meanwhile, Model S and X also marked a substantial increase and deliveries for the cars rose up by almost 24 percent over last quarter.
The numbers paint an optimistic picture. However, the market has chosen not to respond to them this time.This could either be because of the fact that Tesla shares recently marked a 17 percent rebound after it’s downswing post Musk’s spate with the SEC, or, it may be because the numbers while meeting expectations, are spectacular.
In it’s last quarterly briefing, Tesla said that it planned to produce somewhere around 6,000 Model 3S/Week by August-end. The Q3 report comes at the end of September, and the company has reported a production capacity of around 5,300. Close, but still off-target by over 10 percent despite an additional one month. Overall production on the other had, stood at 6,600 despite the Q2 target of 7,000+ cars/week.
While specifying these targets, Musk had said that his company will achieve the numbers in absence of a “force majeure” event. I am not sure whether Musk’s tweet about securing enough funding to take his company private can be considered “force majeure”. Actually, the tweet did set Musk and his company back by some $40 million. I think we can label it a minor hurricane.
On the subject of demand, Tesla said that Model S and X were as popular as ever however, it planned to sell around 28,000 units in Q4 — flat growth when you compare it to Q4, 2017. Musk also used the occasion to comment on the difficulties Tesla was facing in it’s China operations due to country’s trade was with the US. Finally, no weekly production target has been specified for the future, and the company will probably focus it’s attention to getting it’s supply chain and other logistics in order, which I quote Musk here, have been nothing short of “hell” of late.
Developing story. Stay tuned for more.
