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SeekingAlpha predicted this a few weeks ago: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4114125-will-tesla-zero-mon...

"Leading up to the end of September, we saw new-high Model 3 VIN numbers in the wild almost every other day, culminating in number 521.

But since the beginning of October, nothing. I can’t find a single one above 521 with VIN picture evidence on any forum.

It’s unlikely to end up this way, but the sole evidence we have to date is this: Tesla is on track to deliver zero Model 3 units in October.

Of course, I don’t believe it will be exactly zero. However, it’s no longer an impossibility. It’s looking like my previous estimate of 240 units may be way too high."

Tesla says today they produced only 260 vehicles in October--and it's unlikely very many of those got all the way to end users!

From SeekingAlpha October 17: "At this stage, I'll continue to roll the dice one more time in favor of betting that for a third full month, the Chevrolet Bolt EV will out-sell the Tesla Model 3 in the U.S. - and probably by a very wide margin, along the lines or 10:1 or more. Maybe even 100:1 or an infinite margin."

Even if you consider Elon Musk a sort of demigod (as much of the tech industry seems to), the leap from 260 vehicles a month--which indicates the vehicles are still being made mostly by hand--to 5,000 a week is going to be incredibly difficult to make in just a few short months.




What does it mean to "outsell" something when that something is backordered into the foreseable future? Personally I will wait until Tesla goes bankrupt before I buy a bolt but I'm still betting that, despite Tesla's lack of ability to predict their own production capability timeline (uh hello, pretty much every tech company that ever existed), that I won't have to.


Preorders don't become actual sales until you ship the product. If Tesla can't ship cars fast enough they're going to have serious cash flow problems.

The pre-orders mean they could get some line of credit to help, but that will also cut into margins


Actual deliveries and full payment.


Exactly, GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) which publicly traded US companies must play by...


Preorders are a liability.


In Tesla's case, no. Tesla preorders don't come with a price guarantee, and either the buyer or seller can cancel. It's really just an option on a delivery position.

Now if Tesla had locked in the price on preorders, they'd be in big trouble.


seeking alpha is a user contributed site. they don't predict anything. their authors do. and most off them have terrible track record and are trying to push their newsletters , funds, and other crud on an dwindling supply of dumb mom & pop investors who read the site


I'm not sure at this point, but they used to allow anyone to write articles. You were paid based on pageviews. I put their analysis of companies right up there with Marketwatch headlining a big crash everytime there is a down day in the markets.


SeekingAlpha (along with ZeroHedge) correctly predicted 500 out of last 2 economic recessions.


Indeed, if you click "expand" next to "About this article" at the bottom you will read :

>Author payment: $35 + $0.01/page view. Authors of PRO articles receive a minimum guaranteed payment of $150-500.


One or another amateur writer on that site predicts the bankruptcy of Tesla every other week. Even a stopped clock is right once a day.


It turns out that if you have billions in cheap funding, you can keep doing things the wrong way for quite some time.


"The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."


Except in this case it's more than other way. The market is fine, it's tesla causing issues.


Sorry, I thought the analogy was clear, but evidently it wasn't :) "Tesla can remain irrational longer than the investors can continue to bet against it". More of a flippant remark than anything.


Twice


Depends on if it's a 12h or 24h clock.


If it's a 24 hr clock in a 12 hour country it's practically possible to be be right zero times a day.


All 24 hour clocks I have seen were electronic. Broken electronic clock don't show time at all.


that site publishes the same 'tesla is doomed/overvalued' article every week as far back as 2012


Ñl


So you think Tesla is going bankrupt


Huh. A friend told me a week or two ago that he saw 3 truckloads full of Model 3s going up 101. Who knows, maybe he actually saw model S or X.


That's about 10-20 cars, which is not enough to say anything about anything really.


[flagged]


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