Elon Musk told Tesla employees in an email Wednesday night that the company is still on track for a record number of deliveries this quarter.
Tesla received more than 50,000 new orders this quarter he said in the email, a copy of which was seen by Business Insider.
Musk said the company needs to hit production rates of 1,000 Model 3’s per day, and is currently at about 900 per day.
Tesla’s stock price has been hammered for seven straight days and is showing no sign of stopping. Follow the stock in real-time here.
As Wall Street analysts worry that demand for Tesla vehicles is waning, CEO Elon Musk told employees that the company has received more than 50,000 new orders this quarter.
That number was disclosed to all Tesla employees in an email sent late Wednesday, a copy of which was viewed and confirmed authentic by Business Insider. Musk also added that the company could surpass its vehicle delivery record of 90,700 which it set in the fourth quarter of 2018.
"If we rally hard, we can do it!," Musk said in the email, adding that the company is close to hitting its production rate targets of 1,000 Model 3 sedans per week. However, that’s direct contradiction to what Musk told employees in November 2018, when he said the company was already at a production rate of 1,000 Model 3’s per week, according to Reuters
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The leaked communications come amid a tough week for Tesla that has seen the company’s stock price sink as low as $191, its lowest price since 2016, as analysts cut estimates and price targets. Shares are now down 27% over the past month.
"At the core of this decline is investors’ heightened concern about baseline demand following the fulfillment of initial pent up demand for Model 3 and the declining tax credit," Gene Munster, formerly one of Tesla’s more bullish analysts, said in a note to clients Thursday.
"More recently, since the breakdown of US-China trade talks on May 5th, the case for Tesla missing their numbers has been strengthened."
Wall Street analysts now have an average price target of $281, according to Bloomberg Data, down significantly from higher targets in recent months. 15 analysts polled rate the stock as sell, with 10 saying hold, and 11 telling clients to buy.
Here’s the full email, as sent to Tesla employees Wednesday night:
From: Elon Musk
Subject: Exciting Goal!
Date: Wed 5/22/2019 10:45 PM
To: Everybody
As of yesterday, we had over 50,000 net new orders for this quarter. Based on current trends, we have a good chance of exceeding the record 90,700 deliveries of Q4 last year and making this the highest deliveries/sales quarter in Tesla history!
In order to achieve this, we need sustained output of 1,000 Model 3’s per day. Almost all parts of the Model 3 production system have exceeded 1000 units on multiple days (congratulations!!) and we’ve averaged about 900/day this week, so we’re only about 10% away from 7000/week.
If we rally hard, we can do it!
Thanks for your great work,
Elon
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Source: Business Insider – grapier@businessinsider.com (Graham Rapier)