On January 18, 2021, the Model Y was on display at the showroom in China.
In an email obtained by CNBC, Musk urged employees to look for ways to reduce the cost of delivering electric vehicles to customers, rather than rushing orders out last-minute to hit its end of quarter sales goals.
In line with originally promised date ranges, the new cars have not been delivered to customers in the U.S. CNBC previously reported that some customers of the electric car company had delivery delays that left them out of pocket for rentals and ride-sharing apps, and had to apply for loans because of the late deadlines.
Customers are waiting longer for their new electric cars than they hoped for. Rivian automotive notified people who had reserved their R1S, a sport utility vehicle, of delivery delays last week.
Sales have grown this year despite the unpredictable delivery dates.
The closest approximation to the sales reported by Musk's electric vehicle and renewable energy business is vehicle deliveries. In the first three quarters of the year, the company had delivered over 600,000 vehicles.
The company has not provided a target for vehicle deliveries in the year 2021. On its third-quarter earnings call, the company reiterated its loose guidance for 50% average annual growth in vehicle deliveries over a multiyear horizon.
In a note to investors last week, Junheng Li, the CEO and Head of Research at JL Warren Capital, wrote that she expects sales of the electric car to continue to rise in China. She noted that the price of gas benefits all new energy vehicle brands.
Canalys research shows that 1.3 million electric vehicles were sold in China in 2020. The firm predicted that the number of EV sales in China would grow to 1.9 million by the end of the year.
China is the world's largest market for new cars, with strong government support for going electric.
The full e-mail that Musk sent out to all of his employees is below.
From: Musk.
Everybody.
Subj. Q4 deliveries vs. cost efficiency
The time stamp is redacted.
Our focus this quarter should be on reducing the cost of deliveries rather than spending a lot of time on overtime and temporary contractors just so that cars arrive in Q4.
We sprint like crazy at the end of the quarter to maximize deliveries, but then they fall in the first few weeks of the next quarter. We won't have delivered any extra cars but we will have spent a lot of money and burned ourselves out to accelerate deliveries in the last two weeks of each quarter.
In the last few weeks of December, we will still have a lot of deliveries, as we don't yet have high volume production in Europe or Texas, which means a lot of cars on boats from China to Europe and on trucks.
The principle is to take the most efficient action, as though we were not publicly-traded.
Thanks.
The person is named "Elun."
