Tesla Motors had a goal of delivering a total of 80,000 of its vehicles to customers in 2016. However, Elon Musk said that the company fell short of its target, as it was only able to deliver 76,230 units for the year.
Tesla Motors Misses Goal Of Delivering 80,000 Cars In 2016
For the year of 2016, Tesla had targeted a total 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles to deliver but later revised down the projection to around 79,000 cars. The actual deliveries did not miss the target by so much and were expected by most analysts. For the second quarter of the year 2016, for example, Tesla’s sales missed targets by 15 percent.
As reported by Oil Price, Tesla boasted “particularly strong” vehicle demand in the fourth quarter, with exclusive orders for Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X up by 52 percent from the fourth quarter of the year 2015 and 24 percent higher than the third quarter of the year 2016.
Possible Reasons For Tesla Motors Delivery Shortfall
Despite the record orders for the fourth quarter, Tesla Motors was not able to manufacture all targeted electric vehicles fast enough due to the delays caused by the introduction of new hardware in its cars for an improved Autopilot and eventually, completely autonomous driving car.
TechTimes reported that in October, Tesla announced that all their electric vehicles that they will build from then on will come with an updated suite of hardware for Autopilot. That would eventually allow the all the cars to become fully autonomous vehicles in the near future once the necessary software is ready.
Tesla said that the transition to the new Autopilot hardware resulted in the company's vehicle production as being "weighted more heavily towards the end of the quarter than we had originally planned." In whole, approximately 2,750 Tesla cars missed being counted as deliveries in the 4Q of 2016, which the company said to be "last-minute delays in transport or because the customer was unable to physically take delivery."
Now, the biggest questions is, after Tesla Motors misses goal of delivering 80,000 cars In 2016, is the company ready for the demand of the new Tesla Model 3?
