Sufficient cash despite delivery drop in 2019: Tesla

Surviving the lowest sales in nearly two years, electric car-maker Tesla said the company has "sufficient cash on hand" despite a 31 per cent decline in deliveries in the first quarter of 2019 as compared to the final quarter of 2018.

Out of the total of approximately 77,100 Tesla vehicles that were manufactured in Q1, 2019, nearly 63,000 were delivered, the company wrote in a post on Wednesday.

Tesla vehicle production occurs entirely from one factory in the San Francisco Bay Area but the vehicles are delivered all around the world. Production could be significantly higher than deliveries, as it was in this quarter, when production exceeded deliveries by 22 per cent, the post added.

Though the company witnessed a sharp drop in its deliveries, it retained enough cash that seems to have compensated for the decline in deliveries.

"Because of the lower than expected delivery volumes and several pricing adjustments, we expect Q1 net income to be negatively impacted. Even so, we ended the quarter with sufficient cash on hand."

Due to a massive increase in deliveries in Europe and China, the company delivered half of the entire first quarter's numbers by March 21, ten days before the end of the quarter which caused a large number of vehicle deliveries to shift to the second quarter.

"At the end of the first quarter, approximately 10,600 vehicles were in transit to customers globally," the post said.

Tesla has just begun the expansion of its premium sedan "Model 3" car that was announced in July 2017 and the vehicle has been doing exceptionally well in the markets where it has been made available.

The company seems serious about meeting its vehicle delivery goal this year.

"US orders for Model 3 vehicles significantly outpaced what we were able to deliver in Q1. We reaffirm our prior guidance of 360,000 to 400,000 vehicle deliveries in 2019," the post noted.

--IANS

rp/mag/bg