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Tesla Motors Inc. fell in extended trading after the electric-car maker backed off its full-year vehicle sales forecast.
Tesla said it now aims to deliver 50,000 to 55,000 vehicles this year, compared with a previous target of 55,000. The company sees third-quarter production and deliveries of just more than 12,000 vehicles including just a few Model X sport utility vehicles.
Reaching the initial target may be a stretch because some interior suppliers might not be able to increase the flow of high-quality parts fast enough to meet the Model X production plan, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on a conference call with analysts. Because the SUV and the existing Model S share the same assembly line, a shortfall by one Model X supplier could slow output of both vehicles.
All is not wine and roses at Tesla, despite the glowing press they receive.
Original Submission
(Score: 2, Informative) by jmorris on Friday August 07 2015, @08:15PM
Lets look at this thing rationally. Tesla Motors has half of the market cap of Ford and yet that original 55K sales figure is something Ford would cancel the production line over, any product selling such low numbers would be deemed a loser. So Tesla is 'priced to perfection' in that idiots have bought the marketing hype around Tesla and are convinced they 'are the future' and the slightest hint of trouble is going to cause huge gyrations in stock prices because they aren't grounded on anything tangible, instead almost purely faith based. Faith is fickle.
Assume electric cars are the future. Assume it even if reason throws up a multitude of reasons to doubt the end result and certainly the optimistic time frame people bought into Tesla based on. Why do you think Ford (And Toyota, GM, etc.) won't be the ones selling them? Building them isn't the hard part anymore, regulatory compliance is. Who has invested multiple generations buying Congressmen and their Sons who follow them into office? Hint: It ain't Tesla. Who has generations of experience building relationships in the DOT, EPA and the rest of the regulatory alphabet soup? Hint: It ain't Tesla. In a capitalist system an argument would be plausible that Tesla could 'disrupt' an existing market and overthrow the established order. That never happens under Fascism. The auto industry is crony capitalism, fascism, whatever you want to call it at it's worst. It can't be allowed to fail. They are all pension systems that finance themselves by building cars and getting government bailouts.
Best case scenario for Tesla is that it just gets bought up to get the patent portfolio at some point.
(Score: 2) by e_armadillo on Friday August 07 2015, @09:37PM
Why would anyone buy them for the patent portfolio? They open sourced the whole shooting match . . .
"How are we gonna get out of here?" ... "We'll dig our way out!" ... "No, no, dig UP stupid!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @10:42PM
> Building them isn't the hard part anymore
Gee, it is nice to be able to just make up bullshit that confirms your biases. Makes the world so much less complicated!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 08 2015, @12:29AM
Big companies have trouble adjusting to sharp market dislocations. If your reasoning were sound, Kodak would have owned the imaging market forever. They were huge, venerable, owned about a million patents, had bought off everyone who was worth buying off. But digital cameras and later smartphones w/ cameras came along and the rest is history, as are they.
My brother works at Ford. I hear stories about Ford inside baseball all the time. Mulally tried really hard to push Ford into hybrids and EVs. Ford ICE (that's Internal Combustion Engine) middle-management and its culture were so entrenched, that he's gone while they remain.
Tesla's challenge is to ramp up production. That's what the Giga Factory is about. But as for the EV, Tesla groks it down to the ground. No other car manufacturer does, not even Nissan.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2015, @01:06AM
I'm convinced jmorris is not a real person, just a shill from the Heartland Institute that occasionally wanders over to this site and posts the company line...