Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) bears may not wish to take note of the simple fact stated in today's headline, but it remains a remarkable achievement nonetheless. Were Tesla any other technology company, a 53% y/y unit shipment increase of its main product would be cause for celebration.
But this is Tesla, and all those shorting the stock can taste blood in the water. This is starting to look like the big kill they've been waiting for. They may be right, but for all its problems, Tesla is one company I would never short, for the simple reason that I want it to succeed.
And it still may. Although the bears like to portray Tesla's fate as no longer in doubt, it is very much. Tesla has enormous technical obstacles to overcome, but its CEO, Elon Musk, has proved adept at overcoming enormous obstacles. SpaceX is proof of that.
Tesla's global deliveries also offer evidence that the conclusion is far from final. Tesla stated that problems with producing the 100 kWh battery packs caused the shortfall in deliveries. Bears may ridicule this explanation, but this amounts to second guessing of technical issues, which has never adequately served the bears' purposes. I find the explanation perfectly reasonable and refreshingly candid. Most of the mainstream automakers never admit to technical problems until forced to do so by government regulatory agencies.
If we accept that this really was a production problem, does this bode ill for Model 3? Not really, unless you accept the wildly optimistic projections of Musk in his latest Tweet storm. I certainly don't expect Tesla to achieve a run rate of 5,000 vehicles/week by the end of the year. Model 3 was always going to be a longer and more difficult production ramp than Tesla avowed.
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