TSLA Shares Continue To Slide -- March 4, 2019

Updates

Later, 4:53 p.m. CT: not smart.

Tesla owners have staged protests outside Tesla stores and Superchargers in some parts of Asia after the electric vehicle maker announced last week massive price cuts, which means that existing customers for some models in some counties have paid by up to 40 percent more for buying their Teslas before the price reduction.

Original Post

Tesla: over the past few months, Tesla has brought down their prices significantly (citing any number of reasons).

Three observations re: Tesla:

• Tesla announced that it is bringing to market the low-margin $35,000 Tesla Model 3
• Musk Melon announces that Tesla will close its showrooms; folks will get a chance to test drive a Tesla after they buy it 
• TSLA shares fell below $300/share on Friday, after the announcement, and are down another $5/share in early morning trading today, now trading below $290 (still a huge gain for those who bought TSLA shares prior to December, 2016

EV sales are tracked here. Sales:

• February, 2019, all EV sales in the US: 16,669
• February, 2018, all EV sales in the US: 16,845
• February, 2017, all EV sales in the US: 12,375

However, vehicle sales across the board plummeted in February, 2019. The longest "partial" government shutdown in US history was the 35-day shutdown that ended in late January. Pent-up demand for auto sales should have had a positive result in February. Three headlines:

• US vehicle sales in February fell, and demand was even weak for SUVs -- Autoblog
• US vehicle sales freeze in February; Fiat viability questioned -- Forbes
• US auto sales hit massive speed bum. Yes, even Jeep Wrangle sales fell -- Fortune

Market:

• GM: up slightly today, at around $40/share
• F: up about 1.6%, around $9/share