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Tesla Delivered Over 76,000 Vehicles In 2016, Falling Slightly Short of Goal (theverge.com)
Tesla delivered 76,230 electric vehicles in 2016, falling just shy of its goal of delivering 80,000 cars for the year. The electric carmaker claimed that "short-term production challenges" starting at the end of October were to blame for the shipment of fewer vehicles than anticipated. The Verge reports: Tesla said the transition to new Autopilot hardware resulted in the company's vehicle production being "weighted more heavily towards the end of the quarter than we had originally planned." In total, about 2,750 Tesla vehicles missed being counted as deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2016, which the company ascribes to "last-minute delays in transport or because the customer was unable to physically take delivery." Tesla said that even though those sales were counted toward 2016, the deliveries were not because the customers did not physically take possession of their cars. Tesla says about 6,450 vehicles are still in transit, and that their deliveries will be counted toward the first quarter of 2017. While it fell short on delivery, Tesla was able to beat its production rate for 2015. Tesla said it produced 24,882 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2016, resulting in a total of 83,922 vehicles produced in 2016. This was an increase of 64 percent from 2015. Vehicle demand in Q4 was particularly strong, Tesla says. Net orders for Model S and X, which were an all-time record, were 52 percent higher than Q4 2015 and 24 percent higher than the company's previous record quarter in Q3 2016. "We were ultimately able to recover and hit our production goal, but the delay in production resulted in challenges that impacted quarterly deliveries, including, among other things, cars missing shipping cutoffs for Europe and Asia," the company says. "Although we tried to recover these deliveries and expedite others by the end of the quarter, time ran out before we could deliver all customer cars."
3 years ago they predicted 100,000 in 2016
http://insideevs.com/tesla-pro...
In January of 2016 they were projecting over 3,200
http://www.fool.com/investing/...
Are they yet making a profit on each sold?
Very likely but how much is uncertain and their infrastructure spending on growth means they'll bleed quite a bit of red ink for a few years yet.
But they do need to get that under control, especially by improving the build quality and making cars that are easier to assemble & repair.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Maybe you should pull that $1000 and go buy a Chevrolet Bolt. Its available now, has the same range and.... all the panel gaps & trim will line-up.
That's exactly the strategy:
"The strategy of Tesla is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model.
https://www.tesla.com/nl_NL/blog/secret-tesla-motors-master-plan-just-between-you-and-me
If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
It's a hell of a growth curve, and the rest of us have always come after the 1% pays for the development. Frankly, I'd rather have it that way.
The S and X are generally considered to have worse interiors than other 100k+ cars.
Every negative comments in this thread about the viability of EVs and Tesla's general goal.
Koch Brothers work hard to push out negative info and bullcrap that the dimwitted will repeat. Things like DO THE MATH while they can't calculate how much gas they actually waste every year. Plus disk brakes. Plus oil changes & filters.
Heck. I spent only 48L of fuel in a Gen2 Volt for the entire year, saving well above 1000$ for the Canadian fillups, with about 100$ in hydroelectricity bill, just for driving 10,000kms.
Anyone that drives 20,000kms/year or more can justify a Tesla purchase. Taxi companies are converting to EVs around here. Lookup Teo Taxi. They have a Uber style app and have an entirely EV fleet.
Surely someone knows how to do math. Just not the fncking ACs here and the other twats.
There are hundreds of thousands of cars selling in that segment (high-end Porsches, Mercedes Benz, BMW, etc.). I can only think of one that seats 5 comfortably and does 0-60 in 2.5s...and that's why Tesla is cleaning up in that segment.
Different people care about different things, and everyone can spend their money on whatever they want. The only ROI that matters for personal purchases is whether the buyer thinks they got their money's worth.
For example, do you believe you got your money's worth on that "degree" from University of Phoenix? Then good for you.
Depends on what you view as the investment and the return. From my perspective (as someone who is considering buying one as soon as I'm certain that they've gotten most of the kinks out of the Model X), energy costs are only part of the equation.
But just to confirm your assertion, assuming an installed cost of $3.50 per watt, 8 full-sun-equivalent hours per day, and a 40-year solar panel life (typical for current-generation panels), that comes to about 2.9 cents per kWh. A Tesla goes about 3 miles per kWh, which means this comes out to only about 0.96 cents per mile. At $2 per gallon, a similar vehicle gets about 22-28 MPG. Let's go with 30 as a best-case estimate. That's almost 7 cents per mile. So if you build your own solar farm, the Tesla will cost you a quarter as much per mile as gasoline even at current prices. Let's say that this costs you a $50,000 premium in the cost of the vehicle. The 5.7 cents per mile you save won't cause you to break even until you cross the 875k mile mark. If you recompute with Bay Area gasoline prices averaging more like $3 per gallon, it's more like 550,000 miles, which is maybe plausible for an EV.
On the other hand, your gasoline-powered vehicle will keel over long before that break-even point, whereas an electric vehicle might actually reach that number of miles, because there are a lot fewer moving parts. So if you have to factor in the cost of a second gasoline-powered car over that same time period, the value equation changes considerably, because that $50k premium is now a $25k premium, and the break-even point is at 275–438k miles, which starts to sound a lot more likely.
And that value proposition still ignores several other important factors:
All of these things have some value, whether in terms of saved time, saving the planet, etc. How much those savings are worth to you tends to be directly proportional to the length of your commute.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Rank in Luxury Hybrid and Electric Vehicles
1. Tesla Model S
$72,700 - $110,700
(Beating out the)
2. BMW i8
$141,695
The Tesla Model S has benefited from constant revisions throughout its life cycle, but its looks have stayed almost exactly the same since it was introduced in 2012. That finally changes with an update for the 2017 Model S that brings it in line with the recently revealed Model 3 sedan and the Model X crossover. Gone is the faux front grille, which is replaced by a new front fascia with slightly reshaped headlights and a sleeker, more streamlined look.
Tesla also claims increased driving range for the 90D and P90D models but doesnâ(TM)t cite any mechanical changes that account for the improved numbers. The 90D, with its 90-kWh battery, improves from 270 miles to 294 miles on a full charge, while the P90D sees range go from 253 miles to 270 miles. These numbers havenâ(TM)t yet been published on the EPAâ(TM)s website, although Teslaâ(TM)s own site says theyâ(TM)re EPA-official. ...newly standard 48-amp onboard charger that replaces the previous modelâ(TM)s 40-amp charger. Tesla says it enables quicker charging than before when connected to a 240-volt NEMA 14-50 power outlet or to a Tesla Wall Connector. We donâ(TM)t have exact numbers for the new charger, but the old 40-amp system was estimated to deliver 29 miles of range per hour of charge, so expect more than 30 miles per hour for the new car. This change wonâ(TM)t affect the amount of time it takes to juice up with Teslaâ(TM)s Supercharger network of quick chargers. (April, 2016)
While 76,000 vehicles may seem like a lot, compared to other car company assembly lines that's actually quite slow. At full speed with all shifts running an assembly plant can push out more than 1000 vehicles a day. Most of the big car companies usually have upwards of 20 assembly plants around the world. Not all run at that capacity but it gives you some scale. If they can continue to solve some of the supply chain issues and further increase production they should be able to drive the price of the Tesla down or make a bigger profit with some economies of scale.
I am not a hater of EV technology but if your going to really make a dent you can't cater to the 1%. The people who could really benefit from EV technology are not the 1% it's the rest of us. Is Tesla trying to serve everyone? Or just a few? When Henry Ford made history he was making a vehicle for the masses.
The Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903. The first mass market car was the Model T in 1908. Before T there was A, S and K that was their "Roadster", "Model S" and "Model X". It's just that hardly anyone remembers, because T became the famous one. If the giga-factory and "Model 3" pays off and sells millions, it'll be straight out of the same playbook.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
But that's not a reasonable comparison to make. How many more years have those other companies had to set up those assembly lines? Maybe try comparing Tesla's production rate with another 13 year old car company. (Or compare Tesla's numbers to what those other companies did in their 13th year.) And don't forget that Tesla is making a new type (electric) of car. And before you say electric cars aren't new, how do those other companies' production numbers for electric cars compare to Tesla's numbers?
like there are NO ice car fires WHATSOEVER... right
"years away" in your book is about 400 days...
Oh it's even better. When I compare the math of buying a Bugatti Veyron compared to stealing a bicycle I come out far cheaper when stealing a bicycle.
I assume that was your point when you compared a very premium car to a bottom of the line compact right?
Steal a bicycle.
What about the government mandated funds transfers propping up the gasoline car industry? Pretty sure tax subsidies to oil companies far outweigh subsidies going to incentivize EVs.
Why has the Model S get glowing reviews?
Is there really nothing objectively interesting about a whisper quiet luxury sedan that does a smooth 0-60 in 2.6s? How about one that never requires going to a gas station because you can charge it at home at night? How about the giant screen in the console? The excellent crash rating? Oh, right, those things are "not relevant" because you don't personally care about them.
This is standard /. zealotry. Start with the assumption that the only reason anyone could want anything from Tesla (or Apple, whatever) is because they are stupid fashion-craving SJW fanbois and then dismiss any legitimate reason one might favor those products as "not relevant".
Why can't you just accept that different people care about different things? It's their money, they can spend it however they want.