Tesla Sets New Production & Delivery Numbers | 03 Oct 2021
Episode 1232, Oct 03, 2021, 12:00 AM
Today’s big EV stories:
• Tesla Sets New Production & Delivery Numbers
• Rivian Reveals IPO Details
• Tesla vs Rivian In Court
Show #1231
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TESLA SOLD 241,300 CARS IN THE THIRD QUARTER
"Tesla has bucked the wider trend of declining sales brought on by the global chip shortage in the third quarter this year, as it sold 241,300 cars — a total of 102,000 more vehicles than the same quarter last year. It’s the most Tesla has ever sold in a quarter (and for some added perspective, the company sold 367,500 in all of 2019)." reports The Verge: "The company managed to deliver more vehicles once again despite the fact that major automakers saw huge drops this past quarter. General Motors, the largest automaker in the US, said Friday morning that it only sold 446,997 vehicles in the third quarter — a 33 percent drop from the same period last year."
Production Deliveries
Model S/X 8,941 9,275
Model 3/Y 228,882 232,025
Total 237,823 241,300
"Expectations were high on Wall Street. A poll of analysts showed that industry watchers were expecting 222,700 vehicle deliveries from Tesla in Q3 2021 on average. Therefore, Tesla significantly beat those expectations." says electrek: "Finally, Tesla also shows a significant ramp-up of Model S production with almost 9,000 units compared to just 2,340 units the previous quarter when it only just started production of the new version of its flagship electric sedan. Tesla is expected to add new Model X production to the mix during this quarter."
"Tesla put customers through repeated, unexpected delivery delays during the quarter. In their release on Saturday, the company acknowledged the delays, blaming them on “global supply chain and logistics challenges,” then thanked customers for their patience." reports CNBC who, at times, will look for a counter point to the euphoria often around Tesla: "The press release announcing the production and deliveries report was dated Austin, Texas. Tesla’s web site still lists its headquarters as being in Palo Alto, Calif., but Elon Musk moved to Texas last year and the company is building a new factory in the Austin area. Tesla is also planning to host its annual shareholder meeting at its plant, now under construction, near Austin on October 7. During the period ending September 30, 2021, Tesla began to ship some lithium iron phosphate batteries from China to be used in Model 3 vehicles made for customers in the U.S"
According to Yahoo! News: "So far this year, Tesla has sold around 627,300 vehicles. That puts it on pace to soundly beat last year's total of 499,550. Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note to investors that the pace of electric vehicle deliveries in the U.S. and China has been strong for the past month or so. That means an “eye-popping growth trajectory heading into 4Q and 2022 for (CEO Elon) Musk & Co.” Still, Ives estimated that the chip shortage will knock 40,000 vehicles from Tesla's annual delivery number. He estimates the deliveries to be at least 865,000 vehicles, with a bull case of around 900,000."
"So how did Tesla manage to avoid what’s crushing the rest of the car industry? According to Barron’s, it might have to do with the company’s simplified supply chain. “Chinese-based production seems to have helped Tesla,” Barron’s observes, also mentioning that the chip shortage has released its grip on China this September, “But the chip shortage seems to be hitting different automakers at different times as chip-makers truggle to fill orders. Timing is the final potential reason [for Tesla’s success]." says Inverse.com: "Regardless of why Tesla managed to dunk on expectations, Musk took to Twitter to celebrate his Tesla team, writing a special thanks to Tesla’s “suppliers and logistics partners for coming through despite great difficulties.”"
*Ad Break*
RIVIAN IPO DETAILS
Automotive News said: "The company’s IPO plans come as EV makers are scaling up, angling for a bigger slice of the growing market. With $10.5 billion raised from backers including Amazon and Ford Motor Co., an established factory in Illinois and thousands of reservation holders for its R1T truck and R1S SUV, Rivian is among the most serious competitors lining up to take on electric-vehicle leader Tesla Inc."
Rivian’s IPO Filing Reveals Lots Of Juicy Details, Like Losing $1B In 6 Months
"Last week, the company filed an Initial Public Offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission with a placeholder price of $100 million, though this number will change when terms of the share sale are set. Meanwhile, Automotive News reports, 48,390 customers have already put down a refundable deposit of $1,000 for either the R1T and R1S electric models of the brand. And that’s about the good part of the picture." says Motor1.com :"The filing also reveals that the Amazon-backed manufacturer lost $994 million during the first six months of the year. For comparison, in the same period last year, Rivian registered a deficit of $377 million, the filing also reveals. As of June 30, the company had approximately $3.7 billion in cash and other cash equivalents to finance its operations. It’s currently generating very small revenues from selling products."
"The filing — one of the most anticipated of the year — shows a company burning through cash as it takes on the mammoth effort of designing, developing, producing and then selling electric vehicles. The S-1, the document where companies disclose financial data, risks and opportunities, also provides insight into its expansion, relationship with Amazon and spending projections." writes TechCrunch: "Rivian reported a net loss of $426 million in 2019. Those losses more than doubled to $1 billion as the company built out its factory in Normal, Illinois, prepared to begin producing its R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV and expanded its workforce. Its S-1 states that it employed 6,274 people as of June 30. However, the company recently told TechCrunch it employs more than 8,000 people across several facilities in Arizona, California, Michigan, Illinois, Vancouver, Canada and the UK. The company spent $766 million on R&D in 2020. In the first half of 2021 the company spent $683 million on R&D. Those costs are projected to grow. Rivian said it expects cumulative spending on capital expenditures to be about $8 billion through the end of 2023 as it invests in and builds out infrastructure, including additional manufacturing capacity, battery cell production, service operations, charging networks, retail and software development."
TESLA AMPS UP RIVIAN POACHING FIGHT
"Tesla Inc. escalated its trade secrets fight with Rivian Automotive Inc., accusing the maker of electric pickups of continuing to poach its employees and stealing “highly proprietary” battery technology." writes BNN Bloomberg: "The world’s leading electric-vehicle maker says the lawsuit it filed 14 months ago against Rivian hasn’t stopped the startup from raiding its staff and looting its intellectual property. That includes one instance this summer where Tesla defectors were “caught red-handed” stealing the core technology for its next-generation batteries, “the most essential element for any electric vehicle,” according to a court filing last month."
They add: "A California state court judge in San Jose allowed Tesla last week to add its new allegations to the pending case, along with three more of its former employees as defendants. Rivian had objected, arguing the claims are unsupported by the facts and that dramatically expanding the scope of the litigation will delay resolving it. Rivian already lost its initial request for dismissal of Tesla’s claims back in March. Rivian says Tesla dragged its feet since initially filing suit in July 2020 and hasn’t sufficiently specified the trade secrets it claimed "
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