Tesla Misses Its Delivery-Guidance

Palo Alto - Tesla produced 24,882 vehicles in Q4, resulting in total 2016 production of 83,922 vehicles.

This was an increase of 64 per cent from 2015. Tesla delivered approximately 22,200 vehicles in Q4, of which 12,700 were Model S and 9,500 were Model X. When added to the rest of the year, total 2016 deliveries were approximately 76,230. Delivery guidance for 2016 was at least 80,000 vehicles. The Q4 delivery count should be viewed as slightly conservative, as Tesla only counts a car as delivered if it is transferred to the customer and all paperwork is correct, says the company.

Because of short-term production challenges starting at the end of October and lasting through early December from the transition to new Autopilot hardware, Q4 vehicle production was weighted more heavily towards the end of the quarter than Tesla had originally planned. The manufacturer was ultimately able to recover and hit the production goal, but the delay in production resulted in challenges that impacted quarterly deliveries, including, among other things, cars missing shipping cutoffs for Europe and Asia. Although Tesla tried to recover these deliveries and expedite others by the end of the quarter, time ran out before the company could deliver all customer cars. In total, about 2,750 vehicles missed being counted as deliveries in Q4 either due to last-minute delays in transport or because the customer was unable to physically take delivery.

Source: IWR Online, 04 Jan 2017