Tech

Elon Musk emailed Tesla employees to push them to hit aggressive second-quarter goals

Key Points
  • Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent out one of his signature emails to all employees, pushing them to hit second-quarter delivery goals.
  • "We already have enough vehicle orders to set a record, but the right cars are not yet all in the right locations," Musk said in the email, which was obtained by CNBC.
  • Questions are swirling about whether Tesla can overcome its troubles to hit or exceed the company's second-quarter guidance.
Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Motors.
Yuriko Nakao | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Elon Musk sent out one of his signature "everybody" emails on Tuesday, which are circulated to tens of thousands of Tesla employees.

In it, the CEO rallied employees to work hard to hit the company's aggressive vehicle production and delivery goals for the second quarter.

It is typical for Tesla execs, and Musk, to push employees to work long hours to hit quarterly goals, with extra production and delivery work piling up toward the end of a quarter.

In its first-quarter 2019 update to shareholders, Tesla said:

"We believe we will deliver between 90,000 and 100,000 vehicles in Q2. Although it is possible to deliver a higher number of vehicles, we believe it is important to begin unwinding the 'wave' approach to vehicle deliveries, where overseas cars have been made in the first half of the quarter and North American cars have been made in the second half. This puts extreme stress on Tesla, negatively affects our working capital needs and adds to our cost structure."

Earlier this month, Musk was prompting people to buy Tesla vehicles, with a Twitter post reminding them that "US federal tax drops by $1875 for any Tesla delivered after June 30."

Here's what Musk wrote in the email sent Tuesday, obtained and transcribed by CNBC. Bloomberg first reported on the email.

From: Elon Musk

To: Everybody

Date: June 25, 2019

As you may have noticed, there is a lot of speculation regarding the vehicle deliveries this quarter. The reality is that we are on track to set an all-time record, but it will be very close. However, if we go all out, we can definitely do it!

We already have enough vehicle orders to set a record, but the right cars are not yet all in the right locations. Logistics and final delivery are extremely important, as well as finding demand for vehicle variants that are available locally, but can't reach people who ordered that variant before end of quarter.

I have great faith in you. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

Thanks,

Elon


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