The Key To A Zero-Carbon Footprint -- Import All Your Electricity -- April 4, 2019, T+92, Part 3 -- Tesla

Updates

Later, 9:27 p.m. Central Time: does anyone really read this stuff? Is anyone at CNN even editing this stuff. TSLA plunges nearly 11% at the opening this morning on incredibly bad "sales" report. By the end of the day, it had recovered a bit, closing down "only" 7%. But look how CNN reports it: saying that the very disappointing sales figures "did not come as a shock." LOL. Imagine how far Tesls would have fallen had the sales data been a surprise. LOL. Link here:

Original Post

Tesla US delivery data for March, 2019. Link here. 

• Model 3:
• March: 10,175
• February: 5,750
• Model X:
• March: 2,175
• February: 900
• Model S:
• March: 2,275
• February: 625

So, for the US, a good month. I'm seeing a lot more Teslas in the Southlake, Texas, area. I can count on (no pun intended) that I will see at least three Teslas each day while driving the granddaughters to school and their various extracurricular activities. Almost all of them are sedans; I seldom see a Model X.

Everything below was previously posted.

So, how is the BIG STORY of the day playing out? Tesla's first quarter deliveries plummet! I assume those folks who bought at the close yesterday wished they had to waited until this morning to buy. Whatever.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or what you think you may have read here. 

From The WSJ:

Tesla Inc. said new-vehicle deliveries in the first quarter fell 31% from the previous three months as the electric car maker strained to ship its Model 3 compact car to Europe and China for the first time.

The Silicon Valley auto maker delivered about 63,000 vehicles in the latest period, worse than analysts’ already-lowered expectations.

Analysts on average had predicted deliveries would drop to 73,500, according to FactSet, a figure reflecting total deliveries of Model 3, Model S and Model X vehicles.

Tesla books its sales when a car is delivered. Concerns of a slow start to 2019 have raised questions about the company’s ability to deliver on ambitious sales targets after it struggled for nearly two years to increase production of the Model 3, its lowest-priced vehicle. Tesla had slashed the Model 3’s starting price three times during the quarter, finally reaching its long-promised base of $35,000, suggesting to some analysts that demand for more-expensive versions had plateaued.

So, what was the problem this time?

Last quarter was the first sales period for Tesla after the phaseout of U.S. tax credits went into effect, dropping to $3,750 from $7,500 for buyers. It eventually goes away next year.
On Wednesday, Tesla attributed the slowdown to challenges associated with taking the Model 3 overseas for the first time, noting it had only delivered half of the entire quarter’s vehicles 10 days before the period ended.

The company cautioned that lower-than-expected sales volumes along with several price cuts would negatively affect first-quarter income. It said it planned to end the quarter with “sufficient cash on hand.”

David Whiston, an analyst at Morningstar Research Services, said the Model 3 “should bounce back in Q2 if the transition challenges to delivering in Europe and China are behind them.”