Tesla sold way fewer cars last quarter (and Elon hit court)

[admin]

Just one of those days... Shares of the electric car pioneer Tesla sank 8% Thursday on 1 business headline and 1 legal one: Both its car production and deliveries were down across every Tesla modelin the last quarter of 2018. Elon Musk visited court after ignoring an SEC order for Tesla lawyers to screen his tweets pre-tweet (the judge gave him 2 weeks to agree to a settlement with the SEC). 63K eCars delivered — But that's down 31%... And Tesla got right down to the excuses for coming up short: Ships take time: Tesla began exporting its lower-priced Model 3 to China and Europe. It takes a while for them to get there. $$$: That US government subsidy to encourage electric car purchases? Just got cut in half, making Teslas more expensive for customers.

THE TAKEAWAY

Tesla shares have no chill... The polarizing CEO attracts lovers and haters (think pineapple on pizza). Thursday's report makes Tesla's goal for 360K-400K car deliveries this year look unreachable, so investors piled on the hate and sold shares. They think it'll run out of money. Others still think it's the car company of the future.