Tesla’s new car inventory in the US has plummeted to a new low not seen since the beginning of the discounts as the automaker appears to successfully liquidate its inventory for the end of the quarter.
Due to its direct-to-consumer model, Tesla manages inventory in a very different way than the rest of the industry.
It can’t sell its inventory to third-party franchise dealerships and can only recognize revenue from vehicles sold once customers take delivery.
It means that it needs to deliver all its vehicles to customers by the end of the quarter or its quarterly financials will look bad.
The model has often resulted in end-of-quarter delivery pushes.
Tesla has slowed down the practice in recent quarters, but new inventory vehicles hit new highs earlier this quarter.
It resulted in Tesla offering new discounts on existing new inventory vehicles compared to new orders for the first time.
The discounts appear to have done their job as Tesla’s new vehicle inventory in the US has dropped massively in the last week (via Matt Jung):
With still more than a week left in the quarter, it looks like Tesla could come close to completely liquidating its inventory.
The biggest difference is the Model 3 inventory, which went down by almost 1,000 units in the last week:
It makes sense considering Model 3 vehicles got the most discounts for the longest period of time during the quarter.
There’s a possibility that Tesla is liquidating all inventory Model 3 vehicles in preparation for the launch of a refreshed version.
More cars could be added to the inventory by the end of the quarter, and the data currently looks good for Tesla.
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