There’s certainly been no shortage of drama in the world of Elon Musk lately. The billionaire CEO of Tesla had a few choice words for a diver involved in the recent Thai cave incident after he criticized Musk’s plan to use a submarine to rescue the stranded children. Musk eventually apologized, but Tesla’s stock took a plunge all the same. Now, a raft of Tesla haters have revealed a stockpile of freshly minted Model 3’s parked in California, leading to a host of unfounded accusations thrown at the EV producer.
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The Full Story
The latest news comes from recently released images that depict large parking lots in and around California filled to capacity with Model 3 vehicles, as revealed in a recent report posted by our friends at electrek.
The vehicles were spotted at facilities around Lathrop, where Tesla intends to expand its production capacity to help reach its stated goal of 500,000 vehicles created annually. It’s estimated that roughly 2,000 Model 3’s are parked in Lathrop, with another facility in Burbank housing an additional 4,000 Model 3’s.
Unsurprisingly, the Tesla haters are coming out of the woodwork to throw some shade Tesla’s way. Some have suggested that demand for the compact all-electric is in free-fall, leading to a backlog of vehicles, while others suggest Tesla is trying to defraud investors by producing more cars than what’s currently on the order books.
Some are even going so far as to scout out the parking lots and post images and video to social media. For example, Twitter user @Paul91701736 went so far as to take aerial photos of the parked Teslas in Lathrop, posting the images on Thursday because he “didn’t want to make people wait any longer to see the big picture.”
It’s believed some of the speculation stems from traders looking to short on TSLA stock.
Either way, the posts have lead to rumors that canceled Model 3 reservations are now outpacing new orders, which Elon Musk and Tesla have both denied. Musk took to Twitter to denounce the reports, saying that an additional 5,000 Model 3 orders were collected in just the past week.
All in all, these accusations against Tesla seem pretty weak. It’s well established that there are thousands upon thousands of Tesla customers still waiting for their cars, and the most-likely scenario is that the cars pictured here are simply awaiting delivery.
Essentially, what we’re looking at here is a logistics issue. In the past 6 months, Tesla’s production rates have skyrocketed, and are now up to a whopping 5,000 Model 3’s per week - as Musk laid out prior. The choke point is clearly in the delivery process, but that doesn’t stop some from taking it as an opportunity to make a quick buck.
Unfortunately, Tesla’s stock took a hit all the same.
Further Reading
Read our full review on the 2018 Tesla Model 3.
Check out everything we’ve got on Elon Musk
Read more Tesla news.