Since last year, Tesla has been struggling to meet its delivery deadlines to recover its sales and profit loss. As the news of ongoing layoffs continues to plague the company, many investors, as well as its loyal fans, are hesitant whether or not Tesla can still fulfill its promises.
Fortunately, Tesla proves them wrong as they delivered its first batch of Model 3 to the public. According to business experts, they consider this as Tesla’s notable accomplishment after being delayed for a long time.
The Milestone
Despite Tesla facing a tougher week meeting its deadline, it successfully delivered its first batch of Model 3 cars in China last Friday. The said delivery was a total surprise to the Autocar industry. Not only Tesla delivered the vehicle on time, but they’re also a week ahead of their original schedule.
The business analysts were undoubtedly delighted to see this refreshing change. They also lauded Tesla for this notable milestone after successively missing their deadlines and target dates.
Tesla held a delivery ceremony for the car in Beijing last Friday.
The business analysts also add Tesla’s fulfillment on their part may play a crucial role in meeting their sales and profit target for this quarter.
Despite the company’s decline in auto sales last year due to numerous missed deadlines as well as controversies they faced, Tesla still has a strong market in China. Overall, the giant automaker still holds the largest market in electric vehicles as well as overall car sales worldwide.
The Expansion
Despite the news of layoffs, Tesla’s representatives reveal their plan to build their new factory based in Shanghai. It serves as their factory in Asia aside from their headquarters in Fremont, California.
Tesla aims to meet its production deadlines faster once they’ve built a factory in China.
Meanwhile, the business analysts commended Tesla’s brilliant move. By building a new base in China, they can avoid paying hefty tariffs imposed both by China and the United States for imported cars. The company can focus on producing cars in their respective target markets.
A Challenging Week
Despite achieving a notable milestone last Friday, Tesla barely made it out as they faced a tough week. Last Thursday, Consumer Reports announced they removed the recommended rating they gave to Tesla’s Model 3 initially.
Despite receiving a good score from the road test conducted by the magazine’s staff, the survey’s results answered by the customers showed they questioned the vehicle’s reliability.
Tesla says they welcome customers’ complaints since their input helps the management improve their cars’ features and services as they release new innovative vehicles in the future.
Tesla responded to the said complaints by stating they already fixed the issues and concerns raised by their customers after Consumer Reports released the survey’s results.
Aside from that, Tesla also struggled meeting their CEO’s expectations after Elon Musk announced they would make around 500,000 cars this year. According to his tweet, the company must double its productivity if they want to fulfill Musk’s promises. Currently, Tesla only produces around 360,000 – 400,000 vehicles every year.
The Clarification
Musk published a follow-up Tweet though explaining he only anticipated Tesla’s production to increase up to 500,000 cars for this year. According to his analysis, if Tesla can produce around 10k vehicles per week, they can achieve this goal by the end of the year. However, their projected estimated deliveries are still at 400K.
The Legal Battle
As Tesla faces a legal battle with Securities and Exchange Commissions since last year, the company hires prominent lawyers to help defend their case and to make sure all their comments, tweets, and predictions comply with SEC’s conditions.
However, it seems the company’s legal team is also shaking as the renowned lawyer Dane Butswinkas announced his resignation shortly after working for the company for only two months. Aside from that, Tesla also faced numerous controversial departures including their former CAO and CFO.
