By CCN.com: Tesla (TSLA) has had a poor first quarter in 2019, suffering from various occurrences such as the reported explosion of a Tesla Model 3 in China and a big miss on earnings.

From January to March, Tesla was expected to generate a revenue of $5.19 billion but fell short at $4.54 billion, possibly due to the decline in deliveries in Europe and China.

According to a Reuters report, around 10,600 vehicles were stuck in transit by the end of the first quarter, which led to an overall decline in the revenue of the firm.

Is Fear About Tesla an Overreaction?

Although Tesla has performed poorly on paper, as Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said, Wall Street expected a much worse quarter for the car maker and the deliveries of the Model 3 were actually better than anticipated.

“Overall, the Street was expecting an apocalyptic quarter and Model 3 deliveries were better than feared by many,” said Ives.

The figures from the first quarter also overlooked some major milestones achieved by Tesla such as the Tesla Model 3 hitting the top of electric car sales in Europe by a big margin.

Tesla is said to have sold 19,482 Model 3s in the first quarter while Nissan Leaf, which came in second, saw about 10,315 models sold.

Automotive industry analyst Matthias Schmidt said that the Tesla Model 3 is projected to finish 2019 as the top-selling electric car model in Europe, further establishing its strong presence in a key market.

He said:

“I expect the Model 3 to finish the year as the top-selling electric car model in Europe helped along by the fact that other manufacturers are reducing supply of their electric models to 2020, with plenty of creative excuses, in order to lower their fleet average CO2 emissions – when it counts – to achieve the next round of EU targets being introduced in 2020 covering 95% of their total fleet and 100% in the following year.”

Ark Invest CIO Expects Tesla to Hit $4,000

On CNBC’s ETF Edge, Ark Invest founder and chief investment officer (CIO) Cathie Wood defended her call for Tesla to hit $4,000.

“Our conviction in Tesla is so high it never left our top position,” Wood said.

She noted the progress the company has made in the artificial intelligence (AI) area, a sector in which Ark Invest believes Tesla is three to four years ahead of the competition.

“We learned about Tesla’s artificial intelligence chip. We saw the specs. Our analyst, James Wang, cames from Nvidia, and he said ‘oh my goodness.’ This leapfrogs the competition. They are at least three or four years ahead of the competition,” she explained.

In regards to the concerns of strategists and investors about Tesla’s potential raise of new capital, Wood added that the company can raise additional capital and that they would likely not have a problem doing so.

Wood said:

“Oh it can raise money. I don’t think Elon wants to do it at this valuation. I think he thought that their autonomy day last week would give them a nice opportunity. That once analysts understood how far ahead of the competition they are in terms of autonomy, and how soon it is going to evolve, they would be able to raise.”

In recent months, Tesla has shown signs of maturation as the company shifted from physical store-based sales to online sales, and the firm has secured major markets like Europe with large margins separating the company from competitors.

Investors like Wood who remain bullish on the long-term future of Tesla anticipate an increase in demand for Tesla models throughout 2019 and the company to rebound as key markets perform strongly for the company.