Stocks of Tesla Inc revved up during Thursday's after-hours sessions after its top honcho told personnel via email that the company can break its own car shipments record is registered in the last six months.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk confidently bared that Tesla has a "shot at achieving" the carmaker's first 100,000 delivery" in the second quarter. Currently, Tesla is on track to hit its 110,000 delivery target as "demand is strong", Musk said.
Shares of the Palo Alto, CA-based American electric vehicle and energy giant soared more than 6 percent to $242.57, its most impressive advance in more than a quarter. The gain trimmed down the company's losses to 26 percent.
It has been the 48-year old billionaire's habit of keeping his staff in the loop when it comes to the end of quarter sales updates as his way of leading the company to hit its profit goals. If the carmaker were to hand over a hundred thousand cars each during the past six months of 2019, orders would approximately hit the low-end of 360,000 to around 400,000 Tesla has projected for the current year.
While the company has announced over 95,000 vehicle shipments in six months, worldwide demand was steered by the low-margin Model 3 Sedan, and Tesla reported a bigger decline than what observers at Wall Street had initially thought.
A 6-digit delivery period would be a good performance that still leaves the company far from equalling the largest car companies in the world. As a point of reference, General Motors Co (GMC) sold more than 100,000 Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks in the last six months in US territory alone.
Tesla started shipping its Model 3 in the first three months of the year to new regions including Australia. Penetrating more locations across the seas could help the company counterbalance the headwind brought about by the contracting central bank tax credit American customers were qualified for beginning July.
In his memo, Musk delved on the logistical issues of promoting and selling electric vehicles to customers. The challenge here, he said, is to ensure that the company has the right vehicle variants in the proper places and "rallying company resources to help with deliveries," he said.
