Elon Musk must be the happiest man in the world. During the third quarter of this year, Tesla sold 69,935 vehicles in the U.S., compared to Mercedes-Benz which only sold 66,542.
Tesla, an eight-year start-up company, toppled the Mercedes-Benz, a company that invented the car 132 years ago. According to Atherton Research, Tesla was only shy of 1,754 vehicles to knock over the other German giant, BMW. Atherton expects Tesla to surpass BMW in US sales during the last quarter of 2018.
Tesla’s September Success
In September, Tesla delivered 83,500 vehicles worldwide, which is more than 80% of the vehicles that it delivered in all of 2017. Of those delivered cars, 55,840 were Model 3s, twice the number of cars that Telsa had delivered in all of the previous quarters combined. Telsa appears to have optimized their production system and overcome many obstacles that had set them back for so long, including the available car colors , and misses in first-quarter production goals to name a few.
Great Timing for the Resigning CEO
All of this is very good news for Elon Musk, Tesla’s founder and CEO, who is preparing to comply with US Securities and Exchange (SEC) settlement that requires him to step down as the chairman of Tesla’s board of directors and pay a $20 million fine.
According to the SEC’s complaint against him, Musk tweeted on August 7, 2018 that he could take Tesla private at $420 per share — a substantial premium to its trading price at the time — that funding for the transaction had been secured, and that the only remaining uncertainty was a shareholder vote. The SEC’s complaint alleged that, in truth, Musk knew that the potential transaction was uncertain and subject to numerous contingencies.
An Exciting Future Ahead
The current ramp-up in deliveries could have Tesla on track to meet Musk’s promise of profitability in 2019. Macquarie Research agrees, as it begun coverage of Tesla with an outperform rating, saying shares can pop more than 70%.
[via Business Insider]
