Street zaps Tesla
As Model 3 revs up, shares hit reverse
Tesla’s much anticipated car for workaday families — its $35,000 Model 3 sedan — will start rolling off the assembly line on Friday, Elon Musk, the electric-car company’s founder, tweeted on Monday.
The timing is in line with company estimates — a key metric for an outfit that has not hit many previous production goals.
The five-seater — which will cost buyers $27,500 after a $7,500 federal electric-car tax credit — will have a range of 215 miles and go from 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds.
The good news, however, was overshadowed later in the day by a report from the Palo Alto, Calif., company that shipments in the first half of the year came in at the very low end of the expected range.
Tesla shipped 47,100 cars in the six months ended June 30 — after forecasting it would ship 47,000 to 50,000 cars.
The company was hurt by a shortage of 100 kWh battery packs, it said.
The news scared investors, sending shares lower on the day. Tesla shares closed down 2.5 percent, at $352.62.
Still, shares are up 63 per- cent this year.
Tesla, which in late July will host a “handover party” — at which the first 30 customers will accept their Model 3 deliveries — hopes to produce 100 Model 3s in August and then ramp up production to 1,500 cars in September, then 20,000 in December.
The automaker has more than 373,000 orders for the Model 3, its least expensive model to date. Musk has said that some orders would not be filled until late 2018.
Production concerns could be an issue as Tesla delayed production of its Model X SUV nearly 18 months. Plus, Tesla has never made more than 84,000 cars in a single year — which it did in 2016.
Musk has said he will add a fleet of service trucks to augment the abilities of Tesla’s 250 US service stations to better accommodate the growing list of owners.
Tesla shut down production at its California assembly plant for a week earlier this year for production of the Model 3 sedan, in order to meet its target of starting production in July, Reuters had reported.