Elon Musk’s Tesla suffered its first quarter-on-quarter sales decline in years, prompting concerns about America’s appetite for electric vehicles. Analyst Dan Ives explains, “Even when factoring in the factory shutdowns with no rose-colored glasses, Tesla clearly missed the Street with bulls left disappointed.”
Fortune reports that in a landscape where Tesla has long been synonymous with strong growth, the company’s third quarter performance left much to be desired. Elon Musk’s car company reported a notable dip in vehicle sales, marking its first quarter-on-quarter decline in sales since the inception of Model Y production in January 2020.
Elon Musk’s Halloween costume (Taylor Hill /Getty)
The figures tell a stark tale: deliveries plummeted to a little over 435,000 in the three-month span through September, marking a 6.7 percent drop compared to the second quarter. This unexpected downturn has been attributed to a series of upgrades to the company’s manufacturing plants, a move that was previously flagged by Musk during a second-quarter earnings call — but not everyone is accepting the excuse.
“Even when factoring in the factory shutdowns with no rose-colored glasses, Tesla clearly missed the Street with bulls left disappointed,” remarked Dan Ives, managing director for equity research at Wedbush Securities known for his insight on Tesla. This sentiment echoes through the investor community, where the unexpected dip has been met with a blend of disappointment and speculative curiosity.
Despite the drop in deliveries, Tesla remains steadfast in its annual projections, affirming its guidance for the production of approximately 1.8 million vehicles for the year. The company’s strategy to navigate through this financial hiccup hinges on the forthcoming launch of the all-new Cybertruck and a refreshed version of the Model 3 sedan, both of which are anticipated to fortify the fourth quarter with robust sales.
The Cybertruck faces headwinds as it launches, with one designer describing it as a “low polygon joke:”
Professional car designer Adrian Clarke told Fast Company that “the Cybertruck is a low polygon joke that only exists in the fever dreams of Tesla fans that stands high on the smell of Elon Musk’s flatulences.”
“As soon as we saw [the Cybertruck], everyone I know in the industry started laughing,” Clarke said. “We just thought there is no way they’re gonna be able to get that into production.”
The car designer explained that car panels are made by stamping them with big metal hydraulic presses, and that if you have a dead flat panel, like the Cybertruck does, it will cause problems in production. “They always have an amount of curves in them because they have to be able to hold the shape when the part comes out of the press,” he said. “It’s going to vibrate and they’re going to have massive problems stamping those panels and having them keep their shape.”
The investor and analyst community, who track every nuance of Tesla’s production and sales, find themselves at a crossroads of interpreting this decline. While some view it as a temporary setback, others probe deeper into the company’s strategies and future outlook. The consensus estimates, compiled by Tesla’s investor relations department, had previously suggested that the market anticipated a sequential drop to 454,809 vehicles through September, a figure that reality did not align with.
Read more at Fortune here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.