Tesla Surges on Musk Seeing Shot at 100,000-Delivery Quarter
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Tesla Inc. shares climbed the most since June after Elon Musk said in an email to employees that the carmaker has a chance to top the vehicle-delivery record it set in the second quarter.
“We have a shot at achieving our first 100,000-vehicle delivery quarter,” Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer, wrote in reference to the quarter ending this month. “Net orders are tracking to reach about 110k, so demand is strong.”
Tesla’s stock rose 6.1% to $242.56, the biggest gain in almost four months. The advance pared this year’s decline to 27%.
Musk, 48, has made a habit of sending end-of-quarter staff emails to rally the troops pursuing production and delivery goals. If Tesla were to hand over 100,000 vehicles each of the last two quarters of the year, deliveries would roughly reach the low end of the 360,000 to 400,000 range the company has forecast for 2019.
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The blog Electrek reported on Musk’s email earlier Sept. 26. While Tesla reported more than 95,000 deliveries for the second quarter, demand was driven by the lower-margin Model 3 sedan, and the carmaker posted a bigger loss than analysts expected.
In the third quarter, Tesla began delivering the Model 3 to new markets including Australia. Overseas expansion could help offset the headwind caused by the shrinking federal tax credit U.S. buyers were eligible for as of July.
Musk touched on the logistical difficulty of getting cars to consumers in his staff memo.
“The challenge is making sure that we have the right car variants in the right locations and rallying as much of our company resources as possible to help with end of quarter deliveries,” the CEO wrote.
Josh Eidelson contributed to this report.
