Tesla Model S and Model X sales crash ahead of anticipated upgrade and refresh - Electrek

Tesla’s Model S and Model X sales crashed by around 50% during the first quarter. A possible explanation is that buyers are waiting for an anticipated hardware upgrade and a possible design refresh.

Last night, Tesla released its Q1 2019 numbers – confirming the production of 77,100 vehicles and the deliveries of 63,000 cars.

Amongst those 63,000 deliveries, only 12,100 were Model S and X vehicles and for the first time, Tesla didn’t even release the split between those models.

It represents a 56% decrease over the 27,550 units delivered during the previous quarter and 44% drop versus the same period last year.

Those are a significant reduction in sales, but Tesla didn’t off a clear explanation for it in its announcement.

Electrek’s Take

We were aware that Model 3 deliveries would be down this quarter due to the market introduction in Europe and China, but Model S and Model X numbers are a bigger surprise.

Model 3 has been out for over a year now and there’s never been any strong evidence that it was cannibalizing sales of Model S or Model X.

It’s not clear if we are starting to see that happening or if there are other factors at play.

Personally, I think it might have more to do with buyers anticipating changes with those vehicle programs.

When Tesla announced Supercharger V3, we noted that it would negatively affect Model S and Model X sales since Tesla couldn’t confirm the charge rate for those vehicles.

It hinted at a needed upcoming upgrade to take advantage of the capacity of those new charging stations. I believe many buyers are waiting for that upgrade.

Furthermore, we reported last year that Tesla is planning a Model S and Model X interior refresh and some buyers could be waiting for that too, but our sources at the time said that it was planned for around June or July 2019.

Either way, it is becoming clear that Model S and Model X demand has fallen drastically in the last few months and it explains Tesla’s constant price changes to try to attract new buyers.

Do you think those upcoming updates are going to bring back demand to the usual ~20,000 units per quarter or even push demand higher? Let us know in the comment section below.

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https://electrek.co/2019/04/04/tesla-model-s-anticipated-upgrade-and-refresh/

2019-04-04 09:38:00Z
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