Hello Readers,
If you are Tesla Bull, consider this FUD for thoughts.
The purpose of this article is to find the truth about the backlog.
As you may know, Tesla has ca. 230 Mio in Customer deposits, 150-160 Mio of which are thought to be towards Model X, based on reservation tally.
The rest is thought to be Model S reservations, which would imply roughly 30K Backlog, or is it?
See, in China and Europe, customer has to provide full payment of vehicles price before it is shipped, which is 4-6 weeks before delivery, in China, another prepayment for taxes is also required.
The problem is, which balance sheet position are these liabilities included in ? I ve written numerous emails to Tesla, you can ask a really nice question like "How do Elon Musks farts smell?" you will get "Like flowers" within hours, now ask "How are payments made by Customers in China and Europe prior to delivery accounted for on the balance sheet?", you get silence. Written 6 from different accounts, nada, nix.
There is no balance sheet position that reflects it, its not accrued liabilities, not in accounts payable and not in deferred revenues, i was so nice and checked it for you, feel free to ask questions if you have doubts.
So could it be within Customer deposits which would mean the Backlog is not nearly that big, it could even mean that Model X backlog is not as big as tally suggests.
Why?
Check out the Inventory of finished goods, roughly 3300 vehicles- 250 Millions with each vehicles at 75K$ value (2times the amount in Q1 2014), most of them on the way to their customers, large share of them have prepaid their vehicles before quarters end, which could have pushed the customer deposits up.
I encourage you to contact Tesla regarding the payments on the balance sheet, maybe i am just dumb conspiracy theorist and its all good, if you get response, please let us know.
If you are Tesla Bull, consider this FUD for thoughts.
The purpose of this article is to find the truth about the backlog.
As you may know, Tesla has ca. 230 Mio in Customer deposits, 150-160 Mio of which are thought to be towards Model X, based on reservation tally.
The rest is thought to be Model S reservations, which would imply roughly 30K Backlog, or is it?
See, in China and Europe, customer has to provide full payment of vehicles price before it is shipped, which is 4-6 weeks before delivery, in China, another prepayment for taxes is also required.
The problem is, which balance sheet position are these liabilities included in ? I ve written numerous emails to Tesla, you can ask a really nice question like "How do Elon Musks farts smell?" you will get "Like flowers" within hours, now ask "How are payments made by Customers in China and Europe prior to delivery accounted for on the balance sheet?", you get silence. Written 6 from different accounts, nada, nix.
There is no balance sheet position that reflects it, its not accrued liabilities, not in accounts payable and not in deferred revenues, i was so nice and checked it for you, feel free to ask questions if you have doubts.
So could it be within Customer deposits which would mean the Backlog is not nearly that big, it could even mean that Model X backlog is not as big as tally suggests.
Why?
Check out the Inventory of finished goods, roughly 3300 vehicles- 250 Millions with each vehicles at 75K$ value (2times the amount in Q1 2014), most of them on the way to their customers, large share of them have prepaid their vehicles before quarters end, which could have pushed the customer deposits up.
I encourage you to contact Tesla regarding the payments on the balance sheet, maybe i am just dumb conspiracy theorist and its all good, if you get response, please let us know.