Tesla today re-affirmed that the production of its next car, the Model 3, would begin in July — and that the company had $4 billion in cash-on-hand heading into the second quarter this year. Both of those are going to be critical as Tesla, which reported its first-quarter earnings today, heads into the back half of the year. The company has gone to market multiple times to raise additional capital, and said year-to-date capital expenditures would be slightly over $2 billion by the time it started Model 3 production. With a lower price point, the Model 3 opens Tesla up to a wider market that could help it justify its ballooning valuation.
Tesla reported a loss of $1.33 per share on revenue of $2.7 billion, while Wall Street expected a loss of 83 cents per share on $2.61 billion in revenue. While it was a wider-than-expected loss, it looks like a pretty ho-hum result for the company as all eyes look toward the later part of the year when the Model 3 production is in full swing — and whether Tesla will be able to get enough cars rolling out. In April, Tesla’s continued rising stock price valued the company more than Ford . That came on the heels of the company saying its vehicle production and deliveries rose in the first quarter at a rate faster than what Wall Street expected. Shares of Tesla were largely unchanged today, with the company worth more than $50 billion (still well above Ford). [graphiq id=”cyCQbmRMzQN” title=”Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) Stock Price – Year to Date” width=”600″ height=”534″ url=”https://sw.graphiq.com/w/cyCQbmRMzQN” frozen=”true”] In April, Musk gave a sort of teaser to a new semi-truck from Tesla . The company is also expected to reveal the final production version of the Model 3 in July . But the Model 3 is likely still going to be on the top of everyone’s minds, with a $35,000 price tag that’s targeting a market looking for a less expensive electric car. (Calling $35,000 less expensive is still, of course, a matter of perspective.) Tesla said it still expects to have between 47,000 to 50,000 deliveries in the first half of the year. Though, as the Model 3 begins production, it may face a bit of an optics problem — where it stacks up against the Model S. Tesla also acknowledged the problem in its earnings report.
“Moving past Q2, particularly as Model 3 becomes available, one of our challenges will be to eliminate any misperception about the differences between Model S and Model 3,” the company said in a statement. “We have seen a belief among some that Model 3 is the newest and more advanced generation of Model S. This is not correct. Model S will always have more range, more acceleration, more power, more passenger cargo room, more displays (two), and more customization choices, and Model S, X and 3 will all have equivalent Autopilot functionality. We will continue to clearly communicate these distinctions to avoid any misperceptions.”
