If you pre-ordered a Tesla Model 3, you may still have quite a wait ahead of you.
Analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets have been contacting Tesla dealers at 18 retail stores to survey how many Model 3 cars had been delivered during the fourth quarter, and the numbers were less than promising. “We talked to stores in California doing as many as a dozen per week with around 10 being the average, and we estimate stores outside of California were doing something closer to half a dozen per week,” they wrote in a note to investors.
Due to these lower than exected numbers, the analysts have adjusted their targets for the fourth quarter from an expectation of 15,000 Model 3 deliveries down to just 5,000. The news on Tuesday morning drove the value of Tesla stock down by a 0.5 percent.
Tesla founder Elon Musk has previously stated that the company had been a “manufacturing hell” when it came to the Model 3, but then stated that it was pulling things together. Seeing as the company delivered only 260 Model 3 cars in the third quarter, the estimated 5,000 in the final quarter of the year is actually quite an improvement. But, with over 500,000 customers having put down refundable deposits for the Model 3, it will be a trial of how much patience the customers have.
With so mcuh on its plate right now with the Tesla Semi, the Model Y down the road, and then the pickup, Tesla is going to need to figure out its manufacturing issues sooner rather than later.
