Hundreds of Teslas Kicked Out of Parking Lot

There have been plenty of rumors that Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) has so many unsold new cars in its inventory that it has run out of space to park them adjacent to its factories. Among those places is a mall parking lot near St. Louis. Another group of unsold cars were in a Michigan parking lot. A judge said Tesla had to move them.

Car magazine Jalopnik called the legal action an “eviction.” The action started earlier in the month. The magazine wrote, “On June 4, 47th District Court Judge Marla Parker ordered that the owner of Hunter’s Square shopping mall in Farmington Hills (Michigan) had to remove the vehicles by June 25 because keeping them there was in violation of city code.”

The news raises the question of why Tesla needs the extra space for its inventory. The conclusion many people have is that it has made hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicles it has not been able to sell. Company workers said the cars had already been sold. They did not give any evidence of that.

Earlier reports suggested that Tesla has as many as 10,000 Cybertrucks parked around the country. The value of those has been put at $800 million. Forbes reports that this is three months of inventory based on the slow sales rate of the futuristic-looking vehicle. Tesla has started to offer incentives and lower prices on the pickup.

A Sales Debacle?

Tesla does not report U.S. vehicle sales. Many European nations do via registration data. Based on the European numbers, in some countries, its sales dropped over 30% in April compared to the same month last year. Cox Automotive publishes estimates of Tesla’s U.S. sales. It reports that in the first quarter of this year, the company delivered 128,100 vehicles. That would be down 8.6% from the same quarter a year ago.

In all likelihood, Tesla’s sales in the United States have declined considerably. This is partly due to CEO Elon Musk’s association with President Trump and his attempt to cut billions of dollars from the U.S. government budget. Some Teslas were spray-painted in protest, and some Tesla dealers faced angry crowds.

The Michigan incident may be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Tesla’s U.S. sales. Musk has returned to the company to try to improve the sales debacle. He had better hurry up.

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