Tesla Is ‘On Track To Set All-Time Record’ Of Delivery, Elon Musk Confirms

In the latest Tesla news, CEO Elon Musk’s e-mail urges all employees to put in extra efforts to achieve the second quarter (Q2) delivery targets while affirming that the electric car maker is “on track to set an all-time record.”

The Q2 guidance of Tesla sets a delivery target of 90, 000 to 100,000 vehicles per estimates in March.

In the first quarter of 2019 (Q1) Tesla delivered just 63,000 vehicles to customers.

In the “everybody” email Musk wanted employees to exert more and hit the aggressive production and delivery goals for the second quarter ending on June 30.

It has been a precedent in Tesla to push employees into long work hours to hit the quarterly goals of extra production and delivery when a quarter heads to a close.

Cost cushion in June

In an early June tweet, Musk also reminded people to buy Tesla vehicles very soon as the cost cushion in June will be missing from July because “U.S. federal tax drops by $1875 for any Tesla delivered after June 30.”

This could have bulged the order books especially the hot-selling Tesla Model 3.

In the staff e-mail, Musk reminds there is “a lot of speculation regarding the vehicle deliveries this quarter. But the reality is that we are on track to set an all-time record that will be very close. However, if we go all out, we can definitely do it!”

But there is a rider as well. The Tesla CEO says there are enough vehicle orders to set a record, “but the right cars are not yet all in the right locations.”

Reports also appeared how concerned Tesla volunteers have extended support to the carmaker to deliver maximum vehicles before the second quarter ends. Tesla delivery center is the nearby service center from where the buyer can pick up the new vehicles.

This community initiative started in Q3 2018 and helped the car maker to hit the profitability goal. The unique volunteer initiatives have spread beyond the U.S and even in Beijing Tesla owners are volunteering to help the company deliver cars to new buyers.

Why Q2 delivery figures so vital for Tesla?

For Tesla, meeting Q2 delivery matters a lot. The Tesla stock has been down 34 percent this year as concerns mounted on demand. On Wednesday, Tesla shares fell 0.2 percent in U.S. pre-market trading.

According to Bloomberg data, the average price target for Tesla shares slumped from $342.84 to $269.39 at the beginning of 2019.

Tesla’s best quarter for a stand out deliveries in the recent past has been the last quarter of 2018 when it supplied 90,700 vehicles to customers.

Tesla skeptics like Goldman Sachs’s David Tamberrino had been airing skepticism on Tesla’s Q2 deliveries and believes the target may be missed and a possible slide in stock in its aftermath.

“We believe a downward path for shares will resume as it becomes clearer that sustainable demand for the company’s current products is below expectations,” Tamberrino wrote in a recent report.

Reiterating his pre-occupation with Q2 deliveries, Musk, who turned 48 on Tuesday replied to a fan in a lighter vein that even on the big day he is, “working on Tesla global logistics.”