“I think it will be well received, and then getting into production and delivery at the end of next year”. The Model 3 is seen as a key step in Tesla’s bid to become a mainstream automaker.
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Tesla gained 0.3 percent to $148.69 at at 12:45 p.m.in NY.
The company’s optimistic forecast is overshadowing a 2015 fourth quarter earnings and revenue miss.
Tesla expects to ship 80,000 to 90,00 Model S and Model X cars in 2016, beating forecasts that the company would only ship about 76,000 vehicles. Tesla expects to improve gross margin by reducing costs of Model S production, and improving margins on Model X by achieving manufacturing efficiencies. He said the company added too many new features at once to the X. We plan to invest in equipment to support cell production at the Gigafactory, begin installation of Model 3 vehicle production machinery, open about 80 retail locations and service centers, and energize about 300 new Supercharger locations. The company indicated that its Model S gross margin would track towards the 30% level by the fourth quarter of the current year. In Q1, Tesla plan to grow deliveries 60 percent about 16,000 vehicles.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters pegged Tesla for a loss of one cent per share for the fourth quarter. That compared to a loss of $294 million, or $2.36 per share, in 2014.
Musk and the company’s new chief financial officer, Jason Wheeler, used a conference call yesterday evening to assure investors that Tesla is determined to cut costs, hit production targets and stanch losses. It will start generating positive cash flow in March. They fell 3.1 percent to $143.67 at the close in NY for a decline this year of 40 percent, wiping out more than $12 billion in market value.
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Initially, it looked like a bad earnings report for Tesla. This was above Wall Street estimates. Tesla’s supply of cash on hand fell to $1.2 billion at year-end, down from $1.4 billion at the end of the third quarter.
