Tesla has to go ‘all out’ to hit delivery record, says Musk

Bloomberg

Tesla Inc. could be on the verge of a quarterly record for vehicle deliveries, though the electric carmaker will need to go “all out” in the last few days of the month, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk wrote in an internal memo.
“There is a lot of speculation regarding our vehicle deliveries this quarter,” Musk told employees in an email. “The reality is that we are on track to set an all-time record, but it will be very close. However, if we go all out, we can definitely do it!”
Tesla shares have slumped 34 percent this year, in part due to concern about demand that Musk has repeatedly downplayed. The company has forecast it will deliver 90,000 to 100,000 cars in the second quarter after handing over just 63,000 vehicles to customers in the first three months of the year. The shares fell 0.2 percent to $219.50 in US pre-market trading on Wednesday.
A Tesla representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company’s previous best for quarterly deliveries was 90,700 vehicles in the last three months of 2018.
As the company targets a boost to deliveries, Tesla’s head of production Peter Hoch-holdinger, in charge of all vehicle manufacturing at the Fremont factory, has left the carmaker, Electrek reported. Tesla had hired the former Audi employee in 2016.
“We already have enough vehicle orders to set a record, but the right cars are not yet all in the right locations,” Musk wrote. “Logistics and final delivery are extremely important, as well as finding demand for vehicle variants that are available locally, but can’t reach people who ordered that variant before the end of the quarter.”