Tesla Sales Tank In Europe Again (NOT)
Credit to Author: Maarten Vinkhuyzen| Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2019 02:00:31 +0000
Published on August 15th, 2019 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
August 15th, 2019 by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
We have the Tesla registration numbers for the first month of Q3, and again the rumor mill that Tesla sales tanked in Europe is in full gear. The narrative is that the delivery numbers (wrongly called sales) in July are just a fraction of the numbers in June. And the first numbers of important markets such as Norway and the Netherlands for August are even worse.
OK, first those wretched numbers.
And if I tell you that in Norway on Monday 8/12/2019 only a single Model 3 was handed over to a customer, after hitting 200+ a day repeatedly in March, the problem is clear. Bankwuptcy is near.
I have encountered a lot of schadenfreude in recent weeks. I am a known “Tesla fan Troll” to some commenters, not only here on CleanTechnica, but also on a number of other forums. Not the least of all, here in my home country, the Netherlands.
I have to hope all of those naysayers are wrong and Tesla can survive this onslaught on its sales numbers. There are a few arguments in Tesla’s favor to counter this narrative.
First, this is comparing the first month of the quarter with the last of a quarter. With Tesla’s infamous end-of-quarter rush, that is not really a good comparison.
Second, it is vacation season in Europe. That means two or three weeks with the family on the Mediterranean and not doing much else in the weeks before and after that ordeal.
Third, and I hardly dare to mention it, for 6 long weeks, no ships entered the Zeebrugge harbor to dump a boatload of Model 3s on European soil. Out of stock is a very poor argument for not delivering record-breaking numbers of cars to customers, I know, but it could still be a cause.
Last week, the first ship reached Europe, and other ships are on their way. Expect a delivery of 3,000–4,000 vehicles every 10–14 days till the end of the quarter. Perhaps enough to turn this tide?
As an anecdotical argument, I spent some time yesterday on a local forum with a lot of people complaining about the long delivery times of the Tesla Model 3. Most were ordering through their employers’ leasing company, and Tesla HQ in Amsterdam did admit that the department dealing with the lease companies was overwhelmed by demand and hiring extra manpower.
Could it perhaps be that Tesla is, as usual, just supply constrained?
Image credit: Chanan Bos, CleanTechnica
Maarten Vinkhuyzen Grumpy old man. The best thing I did with my life was raising two kids. Only finished primary education, but when you don’t go to school, you have lots of time to read. I switched from accounting to software development and ended my career as system integrator and architect. My 2007 boss got two electric Lotus Elise cars to show policymakers the future direction of energy and transportation. And I have been looking to replace my diesel cars with electric vehicles ever since. And putting my money where my mouth is, I have bought Tesla shares. Intend to keep them until I can trade them for a Tesla car.