Tesla deliveries hit 11,580 cars in Q3;
18:19
Tesla does not announce monthly sales figures the way other car companies do, so its quarterly numbers get a lot of attention. On October 2, Tesla deliveries were stated to be 11,580 cars for the 3rd quarter. That number may be adjusted up or down, usually by 1% or less, after all the quarterly results are tallied and verified. Official numbers will be announced soon when the company conducts is quarterly conference call with investors.
The good news is, deliveries are up 49% from the 3rd quarter of 2014. The bad news is, the company will need to deliver almost 17,000 cars in the 4th quarter to meet its pledge of 50,000 – 55,000 cars in total for 2105. There is a lot riding on how close Tesla gets to honoring that pledge. It’s stock price – and ability to raise more capital if necessary – are closely tied to how well it does at meeting expectations.
The company delivered 6 Model X cars at a gala party last week, but those cars all went to company insiders (Elon Musk’s personal car is all black with a white interior) and were all hand built pre-production prototypes. The company has been eerily quiet about when regular production of the Model X will begin. Musk told investors during his conference call last July:
“While our equipment installation and final testing of Model X is going well, there are many dependencies that could influence our Q4 production and deliveries. We are still testing the ability of many suppliers to deliver high quality production parts in quantities sufficient to meet our planned production ramp. Since production ramps rapidly late in Q4, a one-week push out of this ramp due to an issue at even a single supplier could reduce Model X production by approximately 800 units for the quarter.“Furthermore, since Model S and Model X are produced on the same general assembly line, Model X production challenges could slow Model S production. Simply put, in a choice between a great product or hitting quarterly numbers, we will take the former. To build long term value, our first priority always has been, and still is, to deliver great cars.”
Always upbeat, Musk said during a ceremony at sister company SolarCity last week that there had been a “big, a very big jump in orders” for the Tesla Model S as a result of all the media attention the company got because of the Model X launch. On the other hand, Inside EVs reports that North American deliveries of the Model S fell from 6,900 on Q3 of 2014 to 5,400 in Q2 of 2015. That is in spite of the company’s first ever sales incentive program that rewards current owners for referring new customers.
It will be interesting to hear what the company has to say to investors during its conference call next week.
