Why Is Tesla Scared To Release Its Electric-Car Sales Data?
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Frankly, we understand why Fisker Automotive and Coda Automotive might not want to release their sales data.
Both companies have struggled mightily with delayed rollouts of their first plug-in electric cars.
But Tesla Motors just nailed its promised late-June first delivery date for the Model S electric luxury sedan, so we expected more.
You would think the company would now try to behave like the adult car company it wants to be seen as.
In one respect at least, you would be wrong.
The background: On the first business day after the end of a calendar month, the auto industry engages in the monthly ritual of sales reporting, in which all carmakers release the number of cars--broken out by model--they delivered to buyers during the previous month.
All automakers, that is, except for small startup electric-car makers. Both Tesla and Fisker refused to provide monthly sales figures; as private companies, they didn't have to.
Quarterly numbers, delayed
Once Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] became a publicly traded company, it had to provide minimal sales data to stockholders. And it does, buried deep in quarterly disclosure documents filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filed weeks after the quarter ends.
(Fisker and Coda still refuse to give any sales data beyond off-hand, unverifiable comments from executives.)
Now Tesla has moved past its low-volume Roadster. The company says it will build a regular stream of Model S luxury sport sedans to deliver to the 10,000-plus buyers it says have given it deposits.
We asked Tesla communications manager Shanna Hendriks when Tesla would provide sales data--June's figures are due Tuesday--but she said the company had no intention of providing monthly figures.
"We will continue to report figures for Model S reservations and deliveries on a quarterly basis," she wrote, "as has been done in the past. "
In other words: We don't have to play by the same rules as other car companies.
"A mark of legitimacy"
We think that's a dangerous attitude; more importantly, so do two industry analysts we spoke to.
"If you intend to call yourself an American automaker," said Aaron Bragman of IHS Automotive, "you need to publish your figures, just like every other automaker."
"Want to be considered something other than a sketchy operation with little transparency and an uncertain future?" he asked, pointedly.
"Then start opening the doors to inspection, and start providing information by which you can be measured objectively. It's a mark of legitimacy."
Cash flow obscured
Dave Sullivan of AutoPacific echoed the sentiment.
"Niche companies like Lamborghini, Bentley and others release sales data on a monthly cadence," Sullivan pointed out, "so there's no excuse other than not having to play public relations defense on a monthly basis."
"It'll be up to investors and stockholders to demand monthly transparency" from Tesla, he said, but "it'll be difficult [for Tesla] to show progress without releasing sales data" and, he added, "it'll be hard to judge cash flow."
Sullivan suggests the information blockade may hurt the company: "Tesla's barricade won't help opinions on Wall Street."
He noted that Azure Dynamics--the conversion company that built the Ford Transit Connect Electric, now bankrupt--was also reluctant to discuss sales data.
To which we can add that Think North America stopped providing monthly sales a few months before its Norwegian parent company filed for bankruptcy.
"If you're truly proud of your product," Sullivan concluded, "you won't shy away from sales data or reviews from the media."
What does Tesla want to hide?
So, we close with questions: Does Tesla's reticence reduce financial transparency?
Do investors, analysts, and its many, many fans have any right to know exactly how many Model S cars Tesla delivers each month--just as they do for all other car companies?
And why would Tesla be scared to say how many cars it sells?
Leave us your thoughts in the Comments below.
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Have an opinion?
Considering that the production plan for TSLA requires poor EV sales as they ramp up that would just be asking for trouble. They are building one car a day. Try doing the math yourself if its not beyond you.
Speaking of which...a lot of your negative reporting on Tesla seems to hinge on what this Aaron Bragman character advises you. I wonder what sort of position he and his network have in Tesla. Would be interesting to know in the spirit of full disclosure and all that.
My point is: every "expert" has an angle and when they start making statements that don't seem to make much sense one has to wonder what that angle is.
"the doubters aren't the builders. The critics are never the creators. And the skeptics, rarely the inventors"
As for speculation as to why they insist on releasing only quarterly, you've seen how the press jumps on the slightest dip in sales numbers for the Volt and the Leaf. After seeing that, I wouldn't want to release them either. Quarterly gives a little bit of a buffer to seasonal fluctuations, and a better impression of how the car is actually selling, instead of how it's selling last month.
And, yes, as a publicly traded company, they do have certain obligations to inform their owners regularly about the current status of their investment. Sales figures would seem to be a useful data point.
You come off sounding like you are upset that they don't make the information readily available to you so that you can cut and paste it into your articles.
The fact that Tesla doesn't report its sales in a manner that is accessible to your particular journalistic skill level doesn't make this a crisis to the rest of us.
Oh well, it does spice up things a bit!
They're not selling anything at the moment. They are just ramping up production to fulfill a backlog of 11,000 reservations.
Publishing the number of delivered Teslas would just lead to certain news outlets to jump on it: "I told you it would sell in dismal numbers!".
I can see why analysts and journalists (and EV lovers like myself) want the data, to make their jobs easier and clearer. But it serves no other function.
This obsession with "custom" one week after deliveries starts to borders on irrational. Since when has Tesla done anything the way the majors or minors are doing it.
I'm with John Briggs. If Tesla does it differently, good. Quarterly numbers are good enough.
If the only reasons are "investor confidence" and "custom", then I'd ask you to reexamine exactly why those numbers are so essential ONE WEEK after delivery.
The "public", as represented by me, loves Tesla as is.
That leaves you, standing on your soapbox and speaking for.. you?
Can you said how good is your electric car?
Or
Where are the other 9883 people to ask them, so let it know if the car is good enough for that price or just a bad invesment, and nonfuncional item.
Me too. I handed my check over while attending the Fremont test drive event. Driving a Model S is an UNREAL experience!! After the early adopters start getting their cars and providing rides to friends and family, I think the sales momentum will pick up. I'm sure when normal folks (i.e. non-EV enthusiasts) start buying, Tesla will release their sales figures. I'm betting that will start happening next year. I enjoy reading John's articles, but complaining about lack of sales figures when Tesla is only building one car per day seems like beehive beating.
Larry
Tesla has just started production. They SAID that production would be slow to begin with and speed up as time went by. They do not expect to be in full production until the end of the year.
Expect the kind of updates you are talking about in a year's time!
And you can be sure that every piece of information will be jumped upon by the naysayers. Providing monthly 'sales' figures is like feeding the trolls.
Feels like you not only jumped the gun with this article, but you're dangerously close to jumping the shark.
as far as a 3 month report over a one month report? its two months. if Tesla owners wanted to they could probably gleam a pretty good ballpark figure thru their own forums.
For exemple, in France in May, 7 Fisker and 0 Tesla were sold (3 Tesla Roadster were sold in 2012).
This has nothing to do with who is a Tesla fan and who is not. This has everything to do with 'meaningless news'.
Please.
Who the hell is this guy? Has he created one job, or thousands like Elon Musk? Has he created a new automotive segment that dominates the world? Tesla is more of an American automaker than Italian owned Fiat, or Ford and GM that build their products in China, Mexico and Canada and ship them here.
Aaron Bragman and all of the other detractors in Detroit need to take a powder. Detroit automotive types CAN'T STAND the fact that a California company is showing them the future...not Dearborn or Auburn Hills.
The future of the electric car is not in Michigan. Get over it.
Calls himself a Senior Analyst. Guess he writes the reports and vents the opinions investors base their decisions on. Makes you wonder why he would come up with this weird story that Tesla not publishing sales numbers at this stage is cause for alarm. It only makes sense when one realizes that there is a lot of short selling of Tesla stock going on, i.e. people ho can only make money if Tesla stock value drops. For them this is exactly the sort of rumours they need.
You're not seriously saying that the ONLY people who have standing to comment on startups are successful entrepreneurs, are you? By that measure, I wouldn't contact you for comment--as I do because I respect your perspective & smarts.
Bragman & other analysts I quote are those who I believe to have perspective, data & the intelligence to incorporate all of that into savvy news analysis.
As for California, it remains a pricey, unfriendly, and arguably stupid place to build cars:
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1047984_why-silicon-valley-wont-be-detroit-for-green-carmakers
My issue was more with the comments and experts. I've spent more time in Detroit the past 2 years than I care to remember. The undercurrent of rooting for Tesla to fail is palpable with the automotive apparatchik. Therefore, I am suspect of the expert folks from the industry suggesting Tesla is somehow not a real company because they don't do things like Detroit does them.
It's perfectly valid and understandable to ask for the status quo of reporting, but it should not be a surprise if that message is ignored by a company that bucks the status quo :-)
Tesla doesn't play by anyone's rules. They make their own. If investors aren't happy they will show it.
At this time, I can imagine that Tesla has both good days and bad days. As manufacturing defects and other problems are uncovered, Tesla may even have a bad month. Unlike the big blobs in Detroit, Tesla would have a really tough time recovering from the bad press associated with production issues.
2) Tesla is young. Give them a year for production to ramp up.
3) Model S just made Leaf and Volt obsolete. Watch out automotive industry.
Do you also go around Lamborghini blogs, warning potential buyers that their vehicle is not suited to take the family on vacation?
A larger issue about transparency though is TSLA voluntarily took $465M of loan money from the US government. I personally support the loan program, but it comes with obligations to the taxpayer (you and I) that are funding it. TSLA owes us as taxpayers at a *minimum* the industry standard level of disclosure. Part and parcel with taking taxpayer money.
As far as I know, your assumption, that Tesla owes anyone monthly statistics, is not based on fact, but merely your personal opinion. Monthly sales numbers are, the best I can tell, completely irrelevant in respect to the DOE loan, to its terms and objectives.
My vote on the disclosure: give them a little space to ramp up production, , make mistakes, close the line for a few days if problems occur, whatever, instead of trying to pretend like they're a fully mature automaker.
To be clear, I asked Tesla--after it had completed its Model S first-delivery media blitz--whether it planned to report those sales monthly, starting on July 2. It said it would not, and it has not.
How many Model S cars were actually delivered in June beyond the initial dozen or so we know of is anyone's guess. It could be fewer than 20. It could be more than 100. No one knows. And Tesla isn't saying.
Does that answer your question?
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