Tesla Produced 20% More Cars In Q2 2016 Than Q1 2016, Missed Production & Delivery Guidance
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Moments ago, Tesla released its quarter 2 (Q2) 2016 production/delivery figures — well, the generic stats, not country-specific or month-specific figures.
As indicated in the title, Tesla produced 20% more vehicles in Q2 than in Q1 — 18,345 vehicles vs 14,820 vehicles. That’s another quarterly record for Tesla. Though, Tesla’s previous estimate for Q2 production was ~20,000.
Tesla production didn’t quite reach 2,000 vehicles per week in Q2, but the good news is that there was a steep ramp toward the end of the quarter that nearly got the company to that number, and nearly 50% of Q2 production occurred in the last month of the quarter. That’s a good sign, of course, since it shows that:
- Tesla has successfully worked through more and more of the bugs hampering Model X production.
- Demand for the Model S and X doesn’t seem to have tapered off.
- Tesla is showing its continued capability to increase production capacity at a rapid clip.
One of the most shocking stats from the release, imho, is this beauty (emphasis mine): “Tesla expects to produce and deliver about 50,000 vehicles during the second half of 2016, approximately equal to all of 2015.” Naturally, that 50,000 projection is also related to the fact that Tesla basically needs to deliver that many vehicles in the second half of the year in order to meet its guidances of 80,000–90,000 delivers in 2016. I’m sure some bears are jumping on this fact right now with watering mouths as they write up their stories about Tesla’s impending collapse, destruction, and swift fall into Hell.
Bearish claims regarding Tesla demand have been popular for years, even going back to when Tesla was just producing a few hundred (or tens!) of cars a month. Yet, demand seems to keep growing fine enough, since these Teslas must be getting bought by real, live human beings. Also worth noting is that Tesla doesn’t do much advertising and doesn’t offer fleet deals or other discounts for any reason, not even to members of the family (SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive tried to get one and couldn’t).
The negative news of the quarter is that Tesla’s delivery and production numbers were a bit lower than projected, due to the production ramp occurring at the end of the quarter and a lot of vehicles being in transit. The production discrepancy was noted above, and here are delivery numbers on that:
- 14,370 vehicles delivered in Q2, versus ~17,000 projected vehicle deliveries in Q2, based on the Q1 shareholder letter
- 9,745 Model S + 4,625 Model X delivered in Q2
- 5,150 customer-ordered vehicles in transit at end of Q2 (compared to 2,615 vehicles in transit at end of Q1)
These numbers will feed into my next US electric car sales report, which is coming out in a few hours or so.
Here’s the full press release from Tesla Motors:
Tesla Q2 2016 Vehicle Production and Deliveries
Palo Alto, CA – July 3, 2016 — Tesla produced 18,345 vehicles in Q2, an increase of 20% from Q1, and exited the quarter consistently producing just under 2,000 vehicles per week. Due to the steep production ramp, almost half of the quarter’s production occurred in the final four weeks.
With continued productivity improvements, Tesla expects output to reach 2,200 vehicles per week in Q3 and 2,400 vehicles per week in Q4. Current order rate trends and backlog support production at those levels. In total, Tesla expects to produce and deliver about 50,000 vehicles during the second half of 2016, approximately equal to all of 2015.
Due to the extreme production ramp in Q2 and the high mix of customer-ordered vehicles still on trucks and ships at the end of the quarter, Tesla Q2 deliveries were lower than anticipated at 14,370 vehicles, consisting of 9,745 Model S and 4,625 Model X. In total, 5,150 customer-ordered vehicles were still in transit at the end of the quarter and will be delivered in early Q3. That amount was higher than expected (there were 2,615 vehicles in transit to customers at the end of Q1) and is more than a third of the number of cars that completed delivery in Q2.
* * * * *
There may be small changes to the Q2 delivery count (usually under 1%), as Tesla only counts a delivery if it is transferred to the end customer and all paperwork is correct.
Tesla vehicle deliveries represent only one measure of the company’s financial performance and should not be relied on as an indicator of quarterly financial results, which depend on a variety of factors, including the cost of sales, foreign exchange movements and mix of directly leased vehicles.
Image by Kyle Field | CleanTechnica
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