The terrible February 2019 month of Tesla is not a good omen for the year – Quartz



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Tesla has a tough second half of February.

On February 15, Amazon invested $ 700 million in Rivian, a US manufacturer of electric vans. In a note addressed to customers, Adam Jonas, an automotive industry badyst at Morgan Stanley, said that "investment" could prove to be the most important milestone of US cars for 2019. " Rivian does not manufacture sedans like Tesla, but is a competitor. In August, Tesla CEO Elon Musk described an electric van as "probably my favorite for the next product".

On February 20, Tesla announced the departure of Advocate General Dane Butswinkas after only two months of work. This was the second important start this year after Deepak Ahuja, Chief Financial Officer of Tesla, announced in late January that he would retire in 2019.

On February 21, Consumer Reports, a trusted expert, made its recommendation regarding the Tesla Model 3 electric sedan, evoking issues related to bodywork and on-board electronics, such as freezing touch screens and cracking rear windows by the cold. A spokesman for Tesla told NBC this week that the company had handled "the vast majority" of the problems reported by Consumer Reports, but the headline still slipped.

On February 22nd, Mike Jackson, outgoing CEO of auto retailer AutoNation and a long-time Tesla critic, criticized CNBC and pillaged Musk for commenting on the company's efforts in an "almost unethical" way.

Tesla, questioned about the negative developments of the past week or so, talked about Model 3 shipments starting earlier than planned in China, a company-sponsored event to introduce girls to engineering, and a new feature called "Fashion dog". good things that are happening recently. The Tesla stock is down 11% so far this year.

Other recent signs indicating that Tesla might be facing a difficult year are more subtle. In its 2018 annual report on February 19, Tesla described itself as "the world's first vertically integrated sustainable energy company." Sounds good, right? Except in the annual reports of the previous two years, Tesla used the word "only" instead of "first", which made you wonder if the competitors were catching it.

Asked about the use of "first" instead of "only" in the 2018 annual report, a spokesman for Tesla declined to comment on the recording, except to note that Tesla had already used the word " first "instead of" only "to describe itself in a note to investors of March 2018.

In its 2018 Annual Report, Tesla also indicated that it may "have difficulty meeting our sales and delivery targets in existing markets as well as in new markets," and that missed targets "could lead to negative publicity and damage to our brand – a negative effect on our business. "

It is an unattractive start to the year, which promises to be difficult because it aims to reach an annualized production rate of 500,000 cars, or about 10,000 per week. The company grossly missed its production target for model 3 (paywall) in the third quarter of 2018. The federal tax credit for US buyers of Tesla is also decreasing as the company has triggered a phase-down period credit when 200,000th electric car eligible last year.

Even the most devout followers of Tesla have only a lot of patience. Some customers would like to recover their $ 1,000 deposits after losing confidence in their orders.

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