- Tesla is close to hitting a sales record according to an email sent out by CEO Elon Musk. Musk also issued a warning about battery production.
Over the weekend Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk sent out an email to employees saying that the company could hit “record deliveries” if they “rally hard” in the third quarter of 2020. Earlier this year, Tesla issued guidance that it would deliver 500,000 vehicles this year. And for the second quarter, Tesla delivered over 90,000 vehicles.
In Q4 2019, Tesla had delivered 112,000 vehicles — which was the best the company has done on record so far. Tesla delivered 88,400 in Q1 2020 and 90,650 in Q2 2020. The expectations for this quarter as analysts are expecting somewhere between 123,000 and 190,000. This is what Musk wrote to employees:
From: Elon Musk
To: Everybody
Date: September 20, 2020
Subj. All Hands On Deck!
We have a shot at a record quarter for vehicle deliveries, but will have to rally hard to achieve it. This is the most number of vehicles per day that we’ve ever had to deliver.
Please consider vehicle deliveries to be absolute top priority. It’s also extremely important that we keep factory output as high as possible over the remaining 10 days. This is vital for the California market.
Thanks for your most excellent efforts,
Elon
Tomorrow, Tesla is going to host its annual shareholder meeting along with a “battery day” presentation. While there has been a lot of hype around the battery day, Musk threw cold water on what to expect in a series of tweets published today.
In the tweets, Musk said that “high volume” battery cell production is not expected to start until 2022. This will especially affect the Cybertruck, Tesla Semi, and Roadster. And Musk also revealed that the company is foreseeing significant shortages in 2022 and beyond unless Tesla takes action themselves.
“Important note about Tesla Battery Day unveil tomorrow. This affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022,” wrote Musk on Twitter. “We intend to increase, not reduce battery cell purchases from Panasonic, LG & CATL (possibly other partners too). However, even with our cell suppliers going at maximum speed, we still foresee significant shortages in 2022 & beyond unless we also take action ourselves.”
It is rumored that Tesla is building its own pilot production lines for building battery cells at higher volumes at its facility in Fremont, California. The company’s automation unit known as Tesla Grohmann is working on the machines for setting up higher-volume production.
Disclosure: I own a small number of Tesla shares in my portfolio
