Elon Musk recently rejected rumors of a Tesla Model S facelift. When asked about the possibility of an interior revamp to the car, the CEO simply tweeted, “No.” He added, via Twitter, there wouldn’t be an exterior redesign either. In turn, Tesla critics flew into a frenzy. These so-called experts claim a cosmetic overhaul is absolutely mandatory for the award-winning luxury sedan.
To recap the second quarter, Tesla issued its shareholder letter and held its quarterly conference call with Wall Street analysts. The news, as always, is a mixed bag. While improving over its $702M loss in Q1, Tesla still missed Wall Street’s expectations, posting a Q2 loss of $408M. Traders can expect a bumpy ride in the short term. That said, there were some highlights worth considering for those long-term TSLA investors.
The Tesla conference call tonight could go into all kinds of topics, and CEO Elon Musk is known to pull a rabbit out of his hat from time to time. But there’s one fundamental question that will almost definitely be asked a few times, perhaps in different ways or perhaps in exactly the same way repeatedly: How much demand is there for Tesla vehicles?
According to an article in 2018 by Business Insider, the Chevy Bolt was “completely crushing” the Tesla Model 3 back then. The article cited December 2017 sales and claimed that Chevy was the first to produce a long-range electric vehicle that was also affordable. It also claimed that Tesla was threatened by GM.
Plug-in vehicle (PEV) sales are as hot as a summer afternoon in Lisbon, with 1,263 plug-ins being registered in June. That’s a 5% PEV share of the overall auto market and up 75% year over year (YoY). It’s just 20 units behind the all-time record (1,283 units), which was registered last March.
After a slow May, with just 2% growth, June saw the Chinese plug-in vehicle market return to full charge, thanks to some 147,000 registrations, up 72% year over year (YoY). Fully electric vehicles (BEVs) grew faster than that, at +97%, and because the mainstream market is falling (-8%), June’s plug-in vehicle (PEV) share reached a record 8.5%, pulling the PEV market share to 6.3%, well above the 2018 result (4.2%) and on target to reach my forecast of 8% for 2019.
The German plug-in vehicle (PEV) market continued on the right track in June, having registered 8,631 units. Fully electric vehicles (BEVs) were up strong, +117% year over year (YoY), compensating for the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) drop of –9%, and all-electrics now represent two-thirds of plug-in registrations. The PEV share of the overall auto market was 2.7% in May, with BEVs alone hitting 1.8%. That pushed the 2019 plug-in share slightly up, to 2.6% (1.7% BEV).
We primarily cover the electric vehicle market here on CleanTechnica. However, context is important and that means sometimes looking at the broader automobile market. Therefore, I collect US auto sales data from almost all automakers on a monthly basis and take a look at their sales trends. I also split out car/sedan sales data for these automakers since the dominant, mass-market electric vehicle currently on the market is a car (the Tesla Model 3).
The French passenger electric vehicle market scored 5,847 registrations in June, up 25% year over year (YoY). That plug-in double-digit growth is even more significant when we realize that the overall market remained stagnant (-2%). This result placed the 2019 plug-in vehicle (EV) share at 2.5%, with fully electric vehicles (BEVs) alone having 1.9% share.
The Dutch plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market had another great month in June, with 4,543 plug-in registrations, up 196% year over year (YoY). That translated into a PEV share of 11%. The year-to-date (YTD) count reached 20,047 units, which means a market share of 8.9%, well above the 6% of 2019.
