On a sleep Sunday afternoon in the middle of a long weekend, Elon Musk decided to release Tesla sales and production data for Q2 2016 and it is not pretty for the billionaire (and his corporate relations).



While production soared from 15,510 to 18,345, sales tumbled from 14,810 to just 14,370 (down 3% QoQ) - drastically missing expectations of 17,000 sold and the first QoQ drop in Tesla's history...

*TESLA DELIVERED 14,370 VEHICLES IN 2Q 2016 VS 17,000 FORECAST







Full Statement below...

Tesla produced 18,345 vehicles in Q2, an increase of 20% from Q1, and exited the quarter consistently producing just under 2,000 vehicles per week. Due to the steep production ramp, almost half of the quarter's production occurred in the final four weeks. With continued productivity improvements, Tesla expects output to reach 2,200 vehicles per week in Q3 and 2,400 vehicles per week in Q4. Current order rate trends and backlog support production at those levels. In total, Tesla expects to produce and deliver about 50,000 vehicles during the second half of 2016, approximately equal to all of 2015. Due to the extreme production ramp in Q2 and the high mix of customer-ordered vehicles still on trucks and ships at the end of the quarter, Tesla Q2 deliveries were lower than anticipated at 14,370 vehicles, consisting of 9,745 Model S and 4,625 Model X. In total, 5,150 customer-ordered vehicles were still in transit at the end of the quarter and will be delivered in early Q3. That amount was higher than expected (there were 2,615 vehicles in transit to customers at the end of Q1) and is more than a third of the number of cars that completed delivery in Q2.

So back-end loaded production and front-loaded supply in Q3? It seems Tesla always has an excuse and as ever Musk remains hopeful, offering analysts a bone to defend the company to their clients, suggesting the carmaker will produce 50,000 in H2 2016... good luck with that.

We can only imagine the buying-panic this dismal news will create in the stock.