Elon Musk has dismissed reports that more people are canceling Tesla Model 3 order than are placing new orders. The CEO responded on Friday to an analyst report that claimed a quarter of orders have been canceled, describing the claim as “bs” and sharing figures on the company’s real performance.
The report from investment bank Needham & Company claimed on Thursday that 24 percent of the $1,000 reservations have been canceled, double the rate of a year ago. Analyst Rajvindra Gill downgraded his rating of Tesla stock to “underperform,” which sent prices dropping by three percent. Musk, who wrote on his Twitter page that he doesn’t know “where this bs is coming from,” revealed that the company took 5,000 new net orders for the Model 3 last week as well as over 2,000 orders for the Model S and X. These figures roughly correspond to the company’s production rate as reported at the start of the month.
The company told Inverse on Thursday that net reservations were around the 420,000 mark at the end of the second quarter, as noted in the production and delivery note sent to analysts at the start of the month. Tesla also states 28,386 Model 3s have been delivered so far, and it expects order growth to outpace production growth once test drive versions of the new Model 3 performance edition and dual-motor upgrades reach stores.
The Needham & Company report also claimed that customers will have to wait between four months to a year to receive their order for existing models of the car, or 2020 for the $35,000 basic version — but Tesla told Inverse on Thursday that wait times are in fact closer to one and three months, varying depending on the chosen model. The company’s website lists wait times in the region of one and nine months for all editions.
Musk and the rest of the Tesla board will face tough scrutiny when it holds its quarterly earnings call, expected to take place August 1. The last call made headlines after Musk dismissed analyst questions as “boring” and “bone-headed,” later claiming the questions came from sell-side analysts.
It’s not the first time Musk has battled with negative stock ratings. In an email to employees last month, he listed Wall Street short sellers that stand to make a profit from a poorly-performing Tesla as just one of the groups that “want Tesla to die.”
