Tesla: Still waiting for the Model 3
This year upstart automaker Tesla faced its biggest test yet, introducing the Model 3, CEO Elon Musk’s long-promised electric car for the masses.
Fans and foes are still waiting for the results.
Model 3 production and deliveries have lagged far behind expectations. Musk handed over the first batch in late July at Tesla’s Fremont factory, and the company confidently predicted it would build 1,500 in the third quarter, revving up to 5,000 per week by year’s end.
Instead, the company made just 260 in the third quarter, averaging fewer than three per day. Those delivered went to Tesla employees who had ordered them, with the employees serving as testers to shake out any bugs in the cars.
Tesla confirmed last week that non-employee deliveries are finally beginning to take place. Fourth-quarter production and delivery numbers will likely be released next week.
For Tesla, the first new American car company in decades to survive infancy, 2017 was supposed to be a time of transition — from boutique automaker for the rich to a mass-market player. Musk’s goal is nothing less than shifting the world to sustainable transportation, and he has grand plans to crank up manufacturing for all three of the company’s models, to the point where Tesla can build half a million cars in 2018.
Even for established automakers, introducing a new model is not easy. And if the Model 3 is a test for Tesla, analysts say the company and Musk have yet to pass it...
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/ar ... 454637.php
If the report below that MY 2017 3 production is over is correct, anyone who does receive a 2017 MY 3 has a real low-volume collectible:
edatoakrun wrote:According to a document that was recently submitted to NHTSA. Tesla will begin affixing MY2018 VINs on December 22nd...
https://twitter.com/hoonable/status/944233239568318464
The sad reality is that for all TSLA's problems getting model 3 production started, the rest of its operations look even worse:
Tesla's Use Of Customer Deposits To Support Operational Burn Bodes Ill For Future Profitability
As we head into the holiday season, it is time for reflection. Reflect on what 2017 was and reflect on what 2018 could be. In this context, in the universe of stocks we cover, there is one story that needs to be told, and that is the story of Tesla (TSLA).
As we enter 2018, Tesla finds itself in a tough spot. CEO Elon Musk's profligate storytelling has had desirable effects at Tesla as the Company has been able to raise billions of dollars to support Mr. Musk's causes. But the consistent non-performance is now starting to take its toll. SolarCity business has dwindled, Solar Roof is not ready, Powerwall is nowhere to be seen, Model 3 is in manufacturing hell, and the Truck has no prospects of ever being profitable. These efforts have, however, consumed, and continue to consume, a lot of cash.
The Model 3 ramp has been a particularly painful one for Tesla. To soften the investor sentiment on a botched manufacturing, Mr. Musk has been talking about exponential ramp of Model 3. It is ironic that no other auto manufacturer talks about exponential ramps and, for almost all manufacturers, bringing a new car to production is akin to turning an on-off switch and not a multi-month or multi-quarter exponential ramp.
Forget about the exponential Model 3 ramp, it appears that the real exponential function at Tesla seems to be occurring with cash burn (image below from fellow contributor Andreas Hopf shows Tesla's cash burn and how Tesla is different from a self-sustaining franchise like Amazon (AMZN))...
With profligate cash burn, Tesla is now spending money faster than it is raising money from the capital markets. In other words, the Company is financially stressed. As we have discussed in an earlier article, based on Q3 results and considering its near-term needs, Tesla is in a cash crunch. As such, there is now a legitimate concern if auditors can certify Tesla to be a going concern without immediate and ongoing capital raises.
Tesla management understands the financial stress and, in addition to traditional capital raises, has now resorted to filling the Company's capital gap with customer deposits on future products...
https://seekingalpha.com/article/413389 ... fitability