TESLA

Elon Musk's crown jewel ensures production of 362,000 cars/year

As expected, sales in the last quarter of the year, and for the whole of 2018, lived mainly from Model 3, the latest and the cheapest of Tesla models. From October to December, 90,700 vehicles were delivered, of which 63,150 were Model 3, 14,050 Model X and 13,500 Model S. These figures allowed the American electric vehicle manufacturer to reach a total sales of 245,240 units in the 12 months of the year, an increase of 138% over 2017.
If we analyze the performance of the manufacturer by models, we verified that in 2018 Tesla placed on the market 145,846 Model 3, against 50,676 Model S and 48,718 Model X, values ​​high when compared to the 20,000 Taycan / year that Porsche will manufacture, the same value that Audi will produce from the e-tron and higher than the 15,000 of the Jaguar I-Pace. But, above all, they allow the American brand to aim for another dizzying climb to 2019, since the current production rate of 350,000 cars per year (250,000 Model 3, plus about 100,000 Model S and X) is doomed to increase substantially, since Model 3 is expected to grow to 500,000 units / year (ie 10,000 / week) by the end of 2019.
As one would expect, sales are higher than vehicle production, with the Californian manufacturer announcing that it had manufactured 86,555 vehicles in the final quarter of the year (8% more than in the third quarter), of which 61,394 were Model 3, representing an increase of 15% over the previous quarter and a weekly average of 5,166 Model 3, above the desired price, despite the fact that production was interrupted for a few days due to the reformulation of the paint line, which continued to cause bottlenecks.
The planned entry into force in the European and Chinese markets, both in February, will further increase the demand for American vehicles, with emphasis on the most accessible, so that Tesla will continue to have customers waiting to be able to produce the cars that the market needs. In the accumulated 2018, the Palo Alto house delivered a little over 150,000 units of Model 3, which in the face of orders around 450,000, leaves about 300,000 customers waiting for the small Tesla. This assumes that, as the brand defends, the number of withdrawals is offset by the appearance of new orders, with Musk saying that "more than ¾ of the orders that came in the last quarter come from new customers and not from those who already had pre- reservations ". However, most of these customers are waiting for the $ 35,000 Standard that the brand will start manufacturing in the second quarter, and should not reach Europe before the end of 2019.
We now have to wait for the release of the financial results, to see to what extent it is confirmed that the fourth quarter, like the 3rd, was a profit for the brand of Elon Musk. "We started 2018 with a production rate of 120,000 vehicles per year and we finished with a rhythm of 350,000, which almost guarantees us a growth of three times," recalls the manufacturer.
However, as US federal aid to electric vehicles fell from $ 7,500 to $ 3,750 on the first day of 2019, the builder decided to cut $ 2,000 at the price of Model 3, S and X to mitigate the effort for the buyer. Autonews