Many analysts expect Elon Musk’s Tesla to do well in trading for 2019. However, they fail to anticipate that the automotive company shattered the delivery and production estimates of analysts by a mile, setting new records for the second quarter this year.
Tesla witnessed its stocks rise in premarket trading because of the electric car maker’s record-setting achievement. Tesla’s release of the production and delivery results may hint that the company will also be having a strong third quarter, given that they already have a lot of orders in its backlog. The news of Tesla’s second-quarter results helped its shares to soar by about 8% until the markets opened for trading.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed in a company email that his company is on the verge of delivering a massive amount of vehicles for the third quarter, which will likely set the expectations of investors high. After a weak delivery record during the first quarter, Tesla was able to produce and deliver 95,200 cars in the three months of the second quarter. The second quarter delivery increased by 51.1% and shattered its 90,700 records set during the fourth quarter of last year.
Tesla’s car production and delivery is an indicator for investors as the figure provides the nearest estimate of sales. The industry provides people with information regarding the actual amount of cars delivered to its customers, which will likely be a way for investors to find out if the company is doing well.
Dan Ives, an analyst for Wedbush, believes that Tesla’s second-quarter record is a step in the right direction. Ives states that the company bounced back from a weak first three months after beating bull estimates from analysts.
According to FactSet data, analysts expected Tesla deliveries to land at about 91,000 cars. The estimate is way below the actual second quarter result. During the first three months of 2019, Tesla was only able to deliver about 63,000 vehicles. The company was experiencing challenges on car delivery from its manufacturing quarters in California to its customers all over the world and fluctuating customer demand.
Tesla reveals that it was able to make significant progress with their delivery operations and global logistics, which is why they were able to improve from its first-quarter numbers. Tesla was also able to make improvements in cost efficiencies and working capital position.
The 95,200 delivered vehicles do not include the 7,400 cars still in transit since the order amounts do not reflect on the final delivery numbers until the customer has their product. However, the 7,400 vehicles in transit will show up in the report for the third quarter, which is a good start for the company.
Tesla is currently facing stiff competition from other electric sports car makers. Automakers Jaguar and Ford are starting to invest billions of dollars into developing their high-end electric cars. Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, meanwhile, is already starting to get orders for their newly-launched battery-electric vehicles. Both automakers also plan to release more models in the coming years. Jaguar made an impression at the New York Auto Show last April with its release of the I-Pace all-electric SUV.
Tesla, however, remains on top of the electric sports car market, beating all competition by about 15,000 delivered cars in the second quarter. However, Ives believes that while matching Tesla’s record will be a challenge, the automakers are making improvements of their own. Recently, Tesla lost Fremont Vice President of Production Peter Hochholdinger, one of the company’s top manufacturing executives.
