How Fragile Is Tesla? We're About to Find Out.
Even Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) can't escape economic uncertainty and rising interest rates. The electric car company missed fourth-quarter delivery estimates on Monday, despite offering aggressive discounts to move inventory. Tesla delivered just over 405,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter while it produced nearly 440,000 vehicles. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted just over 420,000 deliveries.
The delivery shortfall came despite a generous $7,500 discount Tesla offered U.S. customers to take delivery of a Model 3 or Model Y vehicle in the final 10 days of 2022. Customers opting for one of those vehicles also received free charging for 10,000 miles using the company's Supercharger network. As fellow Fool.com contributor Dan Caplinger pointed out, this move appeared to be a short-sighted attempt by Tesla to meet expectations.
In the end, Tesla still missed expectations, and the delivery number may have been meaningfully worse if the company hadn't offered aggressive discounts. It's getting harder to argue that Tesla doesn't have a demand problem.
Source Fool.com
