Tesla Motors Inc delivered 24,500 vehicles in the third quarter, topping analysts’ estimates, after chief executive officer Elon Musk implored employees to boost sales during the period ahead of a plan to raise more capital.
The maker of electric cars and energy storage devices shipped about 15,800 Model S sedans and 8,700 Model X sport-utility vehicles, Palo Alto, California-based Tesla said in a statement on Sunday.
The quarter was Tesla’s last chance to show that it can be profitable before it raises money to ramp up production of the new Model 3. Musk urged employees on Aug. 29 in an e-mail to work on “building and delivering every car we possibly can.” The company has been taking aggressive measures to keep sales of the Model S and Model X strong while it awaits the smaller, less expensive Model 3, which is not slated to begin volume output until late next year.
Photo: Reuters
The third-quarter deliveries were positive and beat most estimates, said Jeffrey Osborne, an analyst at Cowen & Co, who rates the stock underperform.
“We were looking for 20,500 this quarter with an acceleration in 4Q to get to 50,000 for the second half,” Osborne said by e-mail. “We believe bullish investors were in the 22,000 to 23,000 range.”
Yet the company offered no commentary “to allay investor concerns about discounting to make numbers and drive positive cash flow in the quarter,” Osborne wrote.
Musk last week urged employees to hew to pricing policies, responding to concerns that Tesla was straying from a long-held policy against discounting its cars.
Tesla on Sunday said its delivery count should be viewed as slightly conservative because it only counts a car if it is transferred to the customer and all paperwork is correct. The company reiterated that it expected to deliver 50,000 vehicles in the second half of the year.
Tesla introduced a 60-kilowatt-hour Model S in June that starts at US$66,000 before federal or state incentives. In August, the automaker added a 100-kwh battery option with additional range. The company also announced a two-year lease on orders placed by Sept. 12.
Tesla produced 25,185 vehicles, 37 percent more than in the second quarter.
Brad Erickson, a Pacific Crest Securities analyst with a neutral rating on Tesla, had estimated third-quarter deliveries at 22,000. In a note on Tuesday last week, he said Tesla’s US sales centers were using a deeper discounting formula to boost third-quarter sales.
Tesla is increasing production at its Fremont, California, factory with an eye toward making 500,000 cars a year by 2018, a goal that also depends on the company’s battery factory east of Reno, Nevada, coming online with battery-cell production. Both efforts would require more funding in the fourth quarter, Musk has said.
The third-quarter deliveries figure is a preliminary number that might change slightly next month when the company reports earnings for the period.
The automaker releases global sales figures quarterly, instead of the monthly country-by-country results typically announced by other automakers.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure