After having some troubles with production at the start of the year, which resulted in CEO Elon Musk spending a few nights in the factory, the billionaire visionary has unleashed a string of announcements, sending share prices up by 13 percent since the beginning of the month.
Despite this bump, however, Tesla is still down by 3.4 percent this year.
In an uphill battle in his fight against bad publicity, Elon Musk has been doing his best to reassure investors that everything in his power is being done to push the Model 3 forward, which is seen by many as a critical part of Tesla’s long-term profitability.
Tesla’s troubles were amplified as trade war threats, both from China, and domestically, escalated. Musk has long stated that China was going to be one of Tesla’s key markets due to its size and supportive regulations, but a new 25 percent tariff on auto imports could send that dream flying off the tracks.
Elon Musk noted: "I am against import duties in general, but the current rules make things very difficult. It's like competing in an Olympic race wearing lead shoes."
Despite all of this, however, Tesla dominated the electric car charts for the first quarter of 2018. While a rival managed to steal a couple of the top 5 positions, Tesla still walked away with the victory.
The Model 3 held the number one position in electric car sales, followed by the Model S, with the Model X coming in fourth place.
The Model 3 was clearly the star of first quarter EV sales, up from 1,550 deliveries in the last quarter of 2017, to over 8,100 in the first three months of 2018.
Musk and Tesla aren’t out of hot water yet, though.
Wall Street brokerage Jefferies has noted that the refinancing risk for the company remains high if it cannot reach its goal of producing 10,000 Model 3s per week – a far cry from its first quarter delivery numbers.
By Michael Kern for Safehaven.com
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