Tesla Motors is now working on executing the final engineering and testing work for its fully electric full-size crossover utility vehicle Model X before its official launching next month, reports Valuewalk.
The electric carmaker is confident that it shall be able to make the first deliveries of the Tesla Model X next month. CEO Elon Musk rightfully describes the Tesla Model X as the most hotly anticipated electric car in history.
The release of the vehicle has been subjected to numerous delays in the past and any further delay would be a disappointment to consumers. There is now 24,000 units of the Tesla Model X on pre-order as of the first week of August.
While there are still skepticisms on the September launch of the Model X, Tesla has confirmed the release date in a letter to its shareholders. The company is reportedly ensuring that preparations for the release of the Model X are fastidious. Apparently, the company has been taking an attitude of perfectionism towards the release of its fully electric CUV.
Expected to be an outstanding success
Ben Kallo, a financial analyst for Baird, projects that the Tesla Model X will be an outstanding success for the electric carmaker.
Tesla stock is currently trading at just under $250 per share, but Kallo believes that it will go up in the future to as high as $335 per share because of the Model X.
The analyst stated that Tesla’s long-term growth remained intact and suggested that buying the stock ahead of the release of the Model X would be a sound investment strategy. The Tesla Model X is expected to perform strongly especially since the company has confirmed that the initial Model X deliveries are on track.
The company has already received 24,000 reservations for the Model X, which indicates that it will be more successful than any previous Tesla vehicle. When the Model S was launched in 2012, it only received approximately half the number of reservations that the Model X has acquired during the same point in its production schedule.
Tesla is also banking on an extremely strong Model X release, as it continues to ready the Model 3 behind closed doors. If the projection stays true to form, the Model X is expected to become the most popular electric vehicle in history.
Management changes in Tesla
Weeks before the official launching of the Tesla Model X, Jerome Guillen, the company vice president for worldwide service and deliveries, has taken an unexplained leave of absence, reports Bloomberg.
The timing of the official’s leave of absence seems way off because Tesla is set to begin the delivery of its first fully electric SUVs next month.
Guillen has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and previously worked at Daimler AG. He joined Tesla in November 2010 and oversaw the development of the Model S sedan. He was promoted to vice president of worldwide sales and service in April 2013.
In March, Guillen was reassigned to a role focused on customer satisfaction after Tesla struggled to gain traction in China.
It seems that the changes in the management positions in the company is meant to strengthen the organizational structure of Tesla as it prepares for bigger things with the upcoming release of the Tesla Model X next month.
The company has also hired in July Ganesh Srivats, a former Burberry executive, to lead North American sales and enhance the brand’s luxury reputation to an increasingly global audience.
Early in August, Musk said that a regional head of sales for Asia had also been hired.
In addition, Tesla is searching for a replacement for Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja, whose plans to retire when a replacement is found were announced at the shareholders meeting in June.
Tesla’s board also determined that Doug Field, a former Apple executive who is vice president of engineering, is now an officer required to report stock transactions under U.S. securities law.
Tesla shares fell 0.6 percent to $241.14, the lowest closing price since May 11.
I’m guessing the Model X can’t be produced for anything near half the cost of the Model S, and that that’s why there have been years of unexplained delays. If so, Tesla will not last into 2017. It needs a profitable low cost Model X to survive. The problem may be that the production costs just aren’t cooperating.