Short Interest in Tesla Above 27 Million Shares

The short interest in electric car company Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) remained flat at 27.7 million shares in the period that ended December 31. More important than the raw share count, the short interest represents 28.2% of the company’s float and it would take 11 trading days to cover all short positions.

The short interest mirrors pessimism about the company’s prospects. Its share price has dropped 5.4% in the past month. After sharply outperforming the Nasdaq for most of the past two years, the comparison has become less compelling recently. Tesla shares have risen 30.2% over the period, while the index has risen 12%.

Most of the reason for concern about the future of the company falls into two categories. The first is that production of its new Model X has been very slow. The second is that every major car manufacturer in the world has plans to compete in Tesla’s market.

Tesla delivered only 17,400 cars in the fourth quarter of last year. While the number was 75% over the same period of last year, it was still tiny. And it delivered only 208 of its new Model X crossover. Tesla management says the delivery rate is slow because the company wants to maintain its level of quality control. If that is the case, delivery rates could stay low for much of 2016.
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Major manufacturer announcements about electric cars at the North American International Auto Show held in Detroit show the competitive hurdles Tesla faces. The electric segment will be filled with new products from all the big car companies based in the United States, Europe and Japan. Even if the electric car never catches on, not a single manufacturer in the industry believes it can be left out, in case the promise of the vehicles becomes a reality.