Oh, so now you know what demand is better than Elon. Got it.
No, you're the one who is incorrect here, and documentably so. From the 2018 Q4 conference call (
https://seekingalpha.com/article/42...-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single )just last month (Feb):
Elon Musk:
Of course, Elon also said in that call that Gross Margin on the Model 3 will reach 25% in 2019. But, if that were now achieved, or even close, then Tesla wouldn't need to be cutting stores to save costs. As Elon said in the March Analyst Call (
Tesla Call Transcript (2.28.19).pdf ):
Elon's words are really strong evidence that my original claim on Model 3 demand faltering - at least as observed by Elon and Tesla management - is true. Tesla accelerated the introduction of the SR and SR Plus by several months, both as proved by Elon's statements and by the fact that they had to reduce headcount and close stores in order to do so profitably. They
were waiting on SR rollout until they could get the cost of the vehicle down. That cost cutting obviously hasn't happened as far as they wanted, but instead of waiting until they could get the costs down (the original plan) they decided to do a premature rollout and compensate financially by closing stores and laying people off. If Tesla thought US sales were going to recover, or that international sales would pick up the slack, why would they take such drastic steps to roll out Model 3 prematurely?
Think about it, folks. If Tesla stores were such a non-necessity, why would Tesla turn on a dime and go from creating new stores one quarter to closing almost all the next quarter? If this was a considered plan, then Tesla could/would/should have said as much just 5 weeks ago on the Q4 conference call. They not only didn't say that, they bragged about the
new store openings just last quarter. If the plan was to introduce Model 3 in March, then why didn't they say so in Feb? And, how does achieving a 25% Gross Margin on SR Model 3 jive with the "need to reduce headcount" in order to have the rollout? It doesn't.
All the evidence points to Tesla needing to take drastic steps to increase demand for their vehicles (I'm including the across the board price cuts here, too). Maybe Neroden isn't worried, but Tesla sure seems to be.