Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
Tesla has asked some suppliers to refund a portion of what the electric-car company has spent previously, an appeal that reflects the auto maker’s urgency to sustain operations during a critical production period.
This is bad news if you pre-ordered and were thinking about getting a refund but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-asks-suppliers-for-cash-back-to-help-turn-a-profit-1532301091 (Paywalled.)
See also: Miami Herald and electrek.co, which adds:
Update: Tesla sent us a full statement:
“Negotiation is a standard part of the procurement process, and now that we’re in a stronger position with Model 3 production ramping, it is a good time to improve our competitive advantage in this area. We’re focused on reaching a more sustainable long term cost basis, not just finding one-time reductions for this quarter, and that’s good for Tesla, our shareholders, and our suppliers who will also benefit from our increasing production volume and future growth opportunities. We asked fewer than 10 suppliers for a reduction in total capex project spend for long-term projects that began in 2016 but are still not complete, and any changes with these suppliers would improve our future cash flows, but not impact our ability to achieve profitability in Q3. The remainder of our discussions with suppliers are entirely focused on future parts price and design or process changes that will help us lower fundamental costs rather than prior period adjustments of capex projects. This is the right thing to do.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @02:42PM
This isn't particularly surprising though, Tesla isn't run by people who know what they're doing and they recently offered everybody in queue the opportunity to lock in their orders even though they can't produce cars fast enough to make that make sense.
I'd be very surprised if Tesla survives the coming recession. Even in the best case scenario these are still luxury items. A smaller and smaller number of people need and can pay for a car to begin with, not to mention the extra cost you pay for electric. Now that they're running out of rebates, it's just going to get worse if they don't figure out what they're doing wrong.