Benzinga - by Shanthi Rexaline, Benzinga Editor.
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) achieved a major production milestone and, on Friday, CEO Elon Musk appreciated the team for the accomplishment. More importantly, the milestone prompted a Tesla number cruncher to revisit his estimates for first-quarter deliveries.
What Happened: This week, Tesla produced its 6 millionth vehicle. The company took to its official X handle and said, “Produced our 6 millionth car! Thank you to our owners & teams around the world for your support & hard work—it truly matters.”
Tesla boss Musk reshared the post and said, “Congrats Tesla Team!”
Congrats Tesla Team! https://t.co/tWR4z6CBaPThe following day, Bloomberg columnist Jon Erlichman noted on X that it took Tesla 12 years to build its first 1 million cars and merely four years to build the next 5 million vehicles.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 29, 2024
It took 12 years for It then took 4 yearsTesla to build its to build the next
first 1 million cars. 5 million vehicles. pic.twitter.com/xEwL1KKKLT
— Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) March 30, 2024
Read-Across For Q1 Deliveries: The milestone may be slightly positive for Tesla’s first-quarter deliveries, according to Troy Teslike, who is known for his Tesla predictions.
“Tesla’s tweet about the 6 millionth car threw a spanner into the works. I need to increase my production estimate by a fair amount and my delivery estimate a little,” he said.
That said, he still expects first-quarter deliveries to be below the 422,875 units the company delivered a year ago.
“I’m counting the number of workdays for each model at each factory,” he said.
In a separate post, Troy Teslike noted that Tesla reported a year-over-year decline in deliveries only once in the past — it occurred during the second quarter of 2020 due to COVID-19 shutdowns.
Future Fund’s Gary Black, a Tesla bull, said the company may have produced at least 424,673 cars in the first quarter through March 29 when the company announced the milestone. Assuming the company produced another 4,000 to 5,000 units for the remainder of the quarter, and considering the typical 3.3% gap between first-quarter production and deliveries, he said Tesla may have delivered 415,000 units in the first quarter.
Tesla is due to report its first-quarter deliveries early next week, with analysts expecting the numbers to drop on Tuesday. Expectations are muted, given the demand slowdown in China, softness in Europe and supply constraints in the U.S.
Tesla ended Thursday’s session down 2.25% at $175.79, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Read Next: Tesla Q1 Worries Mount, Fisker’s Pricing Ploy To Stay Alive, Nikola Stock Soars By 57% And More: Biggest EV Stories Of The Week
Photo: Shutterstock
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.