Tesla still taking orders for 2018 delivery

Tesla’s end of the year push has finally arrived, as the company updated it’s website asking customers to place their orders “now” to take delivery in 2018. 

The Final Tesla Rush : Order now and take delivery in 2018

Tesla is rushing to deliver as many cars as it can to help customers avail the full tax credit of $7,500, which expires on 31st, December 2018. Tesla customers taking delivery between January 1 and June 30, 2019, will only be eligible for a federal tax credit of $3,750

To help stoke the order flow, CEO Elon Musk has promised a full refund, if the car is not delivered by December 31, 2018.

“Important note for US Tesla buyers: Federal tax credit drops by $3750 in 3 weeks. To be on the cancellation waitlist for delivery this year or if you want a display car, order at or visit our stores. Full refund if Tesla can’t deliver your car this year,” wrote CEO Elon Musk on December 11th.

As Tesla struggled with deliveries, the company took assistance from volunteers to help deliver a record 83,500 vehicles in July-September.

In mid-November, Musk announced that “Tesla acquired trucking capacity to ensure Model 3 can be delivered in US by Dec 31 if ordered by Nov 30.” And the decision to get hands on with ground transportion will help Tesla rush deliveries over the next couple of weeks. 

It will be a difficult task to deliver cars in less than two weeks for customers who are ordering now unless Tesla has already built some inventory that can be matched to new orders. 

How many cars Tesla delivers in a quarter has a huge bearing on Tesla’s bottom line because the company can account revenue only after delivering the car to the customer

According to Bloomberg Tracker, Tesla has produced 48,148 Model 3s in the fourth quarter and the company is currently building 4,230 Model 3s in a week.

If Bloomberg projections hold, Tesla will get closer to building 60,000 Model 3s for the quarter, add the 8,048 Model 3s that were in transit at the end of Q3-18, Tesla may end up delivering around 65K Model 3s in the fourth quarter. 

Tesla needs to deliver nearly 28K Model S and X in this quarter to reach its guidance of 100,000 units for 2018. If achieved, Tesla will be looking at 90K to 93K deliveries in Q4-18, not too far from the 103K units the company delivered in the four quarters of 2017.