May EV sales

[jerry33]

Tesla won't have to post sales numbers as a public company?

No. They have to post sales dollars and other financial information. They don't have to post units sold. Some companies do, but it's not a requirement.

[Todd Burch]

No. They have to post sales dollars and other financial information. They don't have to post units sold. Some companies do, but it's not a requirement.

Interesting...I bet we all can get a pretty good estimate based on revenue.

[raymond]

I bet we all can get a pretty good estimate based on revenue.

Even if only 1% of Model-S buyers report in at TMC wouldn't VIN # be a good indication?

[jerry33]

Even if only 1% of Model-S buyers report in at TMC wouldn't VIN # be a good indication?

Certainly. But estimating by the last VIN posted isn't the same as publishing official numbers. That is, no one will run a story like "In Testamotorsclub it was estimated that there have been X Model S sold". But if it's officially announced then everyone and his brother will jump on it.

[mattjs33]

If you believe in Tesla, and you believe the Model S is going to be a game changer, then I can't understand why you wouldn't want Tesla to report Model S sales figures. What better way to show the rest of the industry that EVs can be a sales success? Wouldn't it be fascinating to see the sales grow month-by-month?

For years now everyone on this forum has been saying how great the Model S will be, just wait till the Model S, nothing else can compare, Tesla will show the majors how to do it right. So why the resistance to have Tesla report sales? Are you worried that Tesla will have a Fisker-like experience, and fall dismally short of predicted sales?

If Tesla wants to play with the big boys, they should walk the walk.

[doug]

Tesla, Fisker, Wheego and Coda do not report sales figures.

Is Wheego still in business? Fisker recently announced (via press release) that they had delivered 1000 Karmas (worldwide, I believe).

Even if only 1% of Model-S buyers report in at TMC wouldn't VIN # be a good indication?

That would yield a reasonable estimate.

... no one will run a story like "In Testamotorsclub it was estimated that there have been X Model S sold". But if it's officially announced then everyone and his brother will jump on it.

I suppose by "no one" you mean major news outlets. But the car blogs have no problem posting estimates based on what we say here.

[jerry33]

If they sell ~20,000 a year that means ~1700 a month. While it's quite good it's not many compared to old fashioned cars models that sell 20,000 a month (The Prius also sells about that many). The positive spin will be that Tesla is selling all it can make (which can be said with no actual numbers), the negative spin will be Tesla sales are less 10% of more popular car models--and that's if they make the targets. Now I'd like to believe that once the Model S is in the hands of the first 5,000 there will be a flood of orders (every Model S gets two new customers), however, it might not happen, or it might happen slower than expected.

My crystal ball is just not that good so I would rather not give any ammunition to the nay-sayers. I recall what it was like in the early days of the Prius. I was interviewed on a news program talking about the safety of rescue workers. There was a lot of negativity with so-called facts. Now the nay-sayers are reduced to name calling because the facts don't match the nay-sayers' propaganda. Tesla is making a much bigger leap than Toyota so I think there will be a lot more nay-sayers.

[jerry33]

I suppose by "no one" you mean major news outlets. But the car blogs have no problem posting estimates based on what we say here.

Right, but the average person doesn't read car blogs and tends to discount what they say (even though they often have better facts than the major news outlets). People who are "into" cars have already made their minds up positively or negatively so it's not going to change. Also there is a difference between "We sold 1000 cars this year" and "In May 2012, 376 cars were sold".

[mattjs33]

Is Wheego still in business?

They are, but notable is that the LiFe has not yet been certified for MY2012. Wheego is awaiting an exemption for stability control system, which is required for MY2012 cars.

[stopcrazypp]

If you believe in Tesla, and you believe the Model S is going to be a game changer, then I can't understand why you wouldn't want Tesla to report Model S sales figures. What better way to show the rest of the industry that EVs can be a sales success? Wouldn't it be fascinating to see the sales grow month-by-month?

It would be fascinating, but at the same time it'll only give more ammunition to anti-EV people and people who over-analyze changes month to month (the same thing is happening to the Leaf and the Volt). Even if the Model S sells as expected, the sales will still be paltry compared to more established makes. I don't see a need to report month-by-month until the Bluestar comes out. There's a lot of big car companies that don't regularly report sales of specific models (they only do if the sales are excellent).