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Questions bubble up about Tesla Model S sales numbers

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that releasing monthly sales numbers allows the media, "to read all sorts of nonsense into the deliveries." He said that with the company's irregular delivery schedule – 1,000 in a country one month, only a handful the next – the spikes and valleys would not give an accurate picture of the company's actual orders or demand. But, when there's no transparency, people will go looking for answers – or nonsense. Daily Kanban found only 17,819 Model S EVs were registered between January and September 2014. Case in point: Tesla Model S sales, which everyone wants to know about but no one is quite sure about. The best we can do is the quarterly delivery numbers that Tesla does release. For 2014, the official numbers released so far add up to 21,821 (1Q: 6,457, 2Q: 7,579, 3Q: 7,785). That's for the first three quarters, or from January through the end of September, and represents global deliveries. But Daily Kanban obtained global data for all sorts of electric cars from JATO and discovered that there were only 17,819 Model S EVs registered around the world between January and September 2014, a difference of 4,002. Previously, Daily Kanban quoted John Lovallo, a research analyst at Merrill Lynch, saying that Tesla might have around 3,000 Model S EVs, "in inventory or in transit," and is curious to know what's going on. While this next comparison isn't perfect because the dates don't match up, we can take a look at sales of the Nissan Leaf to see how the official and JATO numbers compare. Nissan said in the middle of January 2014 that it sold a cumulative 100,000 Leafs and then announced towards the end of November that it had sold 150,000 total. JATO's numbers show that Nissan sold 44,897, globally, between January and September. We certainly don't know if the different between JATO's number and the official Tesla figures represent a delay in how fast people register their cars or if something else is going on. We have asked Tesla for a comment and for more detailed sales numbers, but have not gotten a response. We do know that, while not ideal, monthly sales data can sometimes be quite helpful in figuring out what's going on in the industry.

This anti-Tesla conspiracy theory isn't nearly as creative as it could be

Here we go again. Remember the anti-Tesla "truther" leaflets that were going around San Francisco a few months ago? There's another bit anti-Tesla message making the rounds, but this time we just don't find the same level of creative detail. As published on Gas 2.0 and copied for your reading pleasure below, the screed claims that a number of Senators and White House staffers were bribed to allow the "toxic tesla crime-mobile" on the street. You know, the one that "is full of lies and cancer causing material." And there's also this bombshell: "Some of the people involved have worked at Tesla and claim to have witnessed: 'Organized crime on a first hand basis.'" Well, then, let's call the cops right this moment. But wait, the conspiracy runs deep, apparently, "Members found out that major media outlet owners (Engadget, Google, AUTOBLOG GREEN [sic], Gizmodo, Jalopnik, etc.) had stock in the Tesla and battery cartels and, thus, covered up the first investigation results." For the record, none of us here at AutoblogGreen have or are allowed to have Tesla stock, so we can knock that rumor down right now. But let's not let the facts get in the way of a good story. All in all, this little tirade isn't nearly as good as the last one, but we'll take this sort of creative fiction any day. The truth is out there. THIS IS YOUR TESLA MOTORS INTERVENTION: BORN IN BRIBES AND CORRUPTION, FORGED IN FIRES, AND MORE FIRES, AND STILL MORE FIRES AND SOME EXPLOSIONS, THE TOXIC TESLA CRIME-MOBILE THAT YOU ARE DRIVING IS FULL OF LIES AND CANCER CAUSING MATERIAL. WE WANTED YOU TO KNOW THAT THE LOOK ON PEOPLE'S FACES, WHEN YOU DRIVE BY, MAY NOT BE ENVY BUT, RATHER: DISGUST! BRIBED: 5 Senators, 8 Senior Agency Staff and 2 White House Staff. Why do "YOU" want to be a part of that? Let's examine the facts and details ... ... Some of the people involved have worked at Tesla and claim to have witnessed: "Organized crime on a first hand basis." Two members have subscriptions to the Axciom Privacy Abuse database. They thought: "hmmm, why not use something evil for good purposes by helping to inform, and save, hapless Tesla owners who got screwed during the information Green-wash!" Members found out that major media outlet owners (Engadget, Google, AUTOBLOG GREEN, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, etc.) had stock in the Tesla and battery cartels and, thus, covered up the first investigation results. They want to clean the market more completely than an email "accident" on an IRS Hard Drive.

Stocks down as automakers, Boeing lead China's hit list in trade spat

Shares in U.S. exporters of everything from planes to tractors fell on Wednesday after China retaliated against the Trump administration's tariff plans by proposing duties on key U.S. imports including soybeans, beef and chemicals. U.S. automakers' products are prominent on China's list of tariff targets, yet shares of automakers ended higher on Wednesday as Wall Street stocks changed course in the afternoon when investors' trade fears subsided. Tesla shares closed 7.3 percent higher at $286.94, Ford shares gained 1.6 percent to close at $11.33, and GM shares were up 3 percent at $38.03. Aircraft maker Boeing closed down 1 percent, weighing the most on the Dow Jones Industrial Average as documents from China's Ministry of Commerce and the U.S. manufacturer showed the move would affect some older Boeing narrowbody models. It was not immediately clear how much the tariffs would impact its newer aircraft. Boeing said it was assessing the situation while analysts from JP Morgan said the proposals from China looked to have been calibrated carefully to avoid a major impact on the planemaker. Fellow Dow component 3M lost as much as 2.4 percent. And farming equipment maker Deere lost nearly $10 per share at its lowest. The company urged the two countries to work toward a resolution to "limit uncertainty for farmers and avoid meaningful disruptions to agricultural trade." The speed with which the trade spat between Washington and Beijing is ratcheting up — the Chinese government took less than 11 hours to respond with its own measures — led to a sharp selloff in global stock markets and commodities. China was hitting back against U.S. President Donald Trump's plans to impose tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods with similar tariffs on U.S. goods even as Trump said the country is "not in a trade war with China." "Everybody knew they were going to retaliate. The question was how strong of a retaliation. Today's move clearly shows that they mean business," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York. China levied 25 percent additional tariffs on U.S. goods, but unlike Washington's list that covers many obscure industrial items, Beijing's covers 106 key U.S. imports including soybeans, planes, cars, whiskey and chemicals. Trump denied that the tit-for-tat moves amounted to a trade war between the world's two economic superpowers.