Sunday, September 09, 2018

Tesla Now Pushing--HARD--To Dump Inventory

It appears that the Genius Musk has a new problem.

The once months-long window between when Model 3 orders were placed and the time that these vehicles were delivered has collapsed. What once was an "exclusive" sounding waitlist is turning into a "department store closeout" style effort by Tesla to deliver whatever Model 3s they can as soon as possible, according to a new report by Electrek....  --quoted at ZeroHedge

Forgetting, for the moment, about the other problems with the Model 3, this will be interesting for another reason.

A few months ago, I had a conversation with a software project manager who works for a (car) dealer systems outfit.  Large one, too, has around 20% market share.  He was telling me that within the decade, automakers would cut dealers out and sell direct to consumers.

He was nuts, of course, like many software people, who count on Magic Software Intelligence Pixie Dust to match demand with supply, perfectly.  Computers don't make mistakes, ya'know.  And all algorithms are correct, all the time, ya'know.

Anyhow.  Tesla's inventory problem should tell us how well the "no dealers wanted" game works.  Then you can do simple math!  Multiply Tesla's inventory by about 100 or 200 to get a rough guess at total new-car (and truck) inventory in the USA.  Think GM/Ford/Fiat/Toyota/Honda want to shoulder that little burden?   

Hint:  take the under.

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