Tesla's unsold inventory is creating stockpiles you can see from space
Last quarter Tesla produced 433,371 Teslas. It delivered just 386,810, meaning there were about 47,000 extra Teslas around, more than double what it was a year ago and its biggest imbalance to date.
This surplus is happening as the electric car company deals with a number of headwinds, including slowing electric vehicle sales growth, growing competition, and chaotic leadership.
“The primary driver of this was an increase in inventory from a mismatch between builds,” Tesla Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja said of the company’s -$2.5 billion in free cash flow (spending on AI compute was also to blame). “We expect the inventory built to reverse in the second quarter and free cash flow to return to positive again.”
I used satellite imagery and object detection analytics from the earth observation marketplace SkyFi, to take a look at some images of Tesla’s Gigafactory outside Austin, Texas. Comparing a Thursday from last October to a Thursday in March, you can see that the parking lots outlined in green in the images below became much more full.
A production lead at the gigafactory who was recently laid off along with more than 10% of Tesla’s workforce told Sherwood those parking lots hold finished Teslas before they’re shipped off.
