Even as America’s well to do continue to buy cars in impressive numbers, pushing inventories of some models low, most luxury vehicles can still be given as Christmas gifts. Not so the products of Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA). The wait time for the once-popular car now is four months. Buy a Tesla S online, and have it by March — at the earliest. The deposit is only $2,500.
The demand for Tesla autos, which probably dropped on concerns about engine battery fires, likely will rise again. Tesla recently announced that one of its Model S vehicles and its battery charger were not the cause of a fire in a California garage last month. German investigators concluded a recent investigation into Tesla’s safety and said they found no manufacturer’s defects.
Tesla has said on a number of occasions that it cannot produce enough cars to keep up with demand. The car fire frenzy may have changed that math and allowed supply to build. At least investors may think so. Despite some recent recovery, Tesla’s share price is down 15% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 is up 5%. If investor sentiment is a reasonable proxy for a public company’s prospects, then assurances about the safety of Tesla cars have not caused a complete rebound in enthusiasm about the car, or dampened all worries that the blemish on the Tesla brand will be gone soon.
Presumably, a four-month wait for a car is a four-month wait, whether the car is bought at a dealer or online. Tesla has continued to battle the efforts of car dealers to block sales through Tesla-owned stores. The legal wrangling is likely to go on for some time as the challenges to the Tesla retail model move from state to state. Analysts who follow Tesla sometimes wonder what its sales would be if customers could walk directly into dealers, drive the cars and order them on the spot — as is the case with virtually every other luxury car in the world.
Dealers or not, the problem of a four-month wait for a new car cuts two ways. Some buyers will walk away to places where they can get a car right away. Others can brag to friends that they are on the Tesla wait list — at least until March.
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