According to foreign media reports, on June 8, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, told employees at the staff meeting that a "Crazy" delivery wave is expected at the end of this quarter** Tesla has been trying to get rid of the payment tide at the end of the quarter, but due to special circumstances, it is still difficult for the company to avoid the payment tide at the end of the quarter.
It is reported that Tesla's own distribution system is very different from the car companies sold through third-party dealers, so the company will make great efforts to deliver at the end of the quarter. Since Tesla sells cars directly to customers, the cars are stored and belong to Tesla until customers collect the cars and pay for them. Tesla's direct sales model has a great impact on its financial position due to the vehicle transportation time, because the company bears the cost of manufacturing these vehicles and cannot obtain any funds before customers pick up the vehicles.
Therefore, when Tesla has a large number of vehicles in transit at the end of a quarter, the financial situation of that quarter may be very bad. Therefore, Tesla tried to produce vehicles for export at Fremont and Shanghai plants in the early quarter, and then produce vehicles for local delivery, so as to allow transportation time before the end of the quarter.
However, this strategy enables Tesla's sales and delivery team to handle a large number of vehicles to be delivered at the end of each quarter, which is the "wave of end of quarter delivery". The "season end delivery wave" will not only increase Tesla's cost, but also affect customers' car collection experience. Tesla will deliver new cars to customers in an orderly manner, and customers often need to rush to pick up the car.
Image source: Tesla
At the end of last year, musk told employees that cost is more important than delivery wave. However, musk said at the Tesla staff meeting on June 8 that there would be a major wave of delivery this quarter.
A Tesla employee asked musk at the meeting when the delivery cycle would stabilize to avoid the "crazy wave of end of season delivery". Musk replied, "since the end of 2008, Tesla has been facing this challenge. It seems that something always happens, leading to the crazy delivery at the end of the quarter. Due to the great challenges we face in Shanghai, this quarter is no exception. For most of the time at the beginning of this quarter, Tesla temporarily closed its Shanghai plant and has not fully resumed production until now. This quarter will be very tense."
Musk tried to reassure employees that "if there were no surprises", Tesla's "delivery wave" at the end of the third quarter would be much smaller. With the production increase of Berlin super factory and the capacity release of Shanghai Super factory, the situation should gradually improve. At present, Tesla Shanghai Super factory has exported a large number of cars to Europe.
Musk previously said that Tesla might not break the delivery record due to the suspension of production, but he hinted that the company could still deliver nearly 300000 vehicles.