The reports of Tesla’s death are greatly exaggerated

Following a few tough weeks for Tesla on the financial markets and in the news, short sellers and detractors are already claiming victory, but to borrow the words of Mark Twain: the reports of Tesla’s death are greatly exaggerated.

If you are following the media or social media these days, it would be easy to think that Tesla is basically over.

$TSLAQ on Twitter, where Tesla short sellers who are betting against the company are gathering, is already claiming victory with the recent drop in share price.

As for the media, they are highlighting people like longtime Tesla naysayer and former GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz saying things like ‘Tesla is headed to the graveyard‘.

There’s so much noise about this that a stranger who was admiring my new Tesla yesterday asked me “but aren’t they bankrupted though?”

Strangely, this is all happening while Tesla is producing and delivering vehicles at a record pace and it is on its way to a record quarter.

Tesla is now producing more long-range all-electric vehicles than any other automaker and it still maintains the highest customer satisfaction rating.

However, that’s not to say that everything is going smoothly at Tesla. There are definitely some issues.

Tesla has lost several top executives in the past months and the attempt to take the company private could have certainly been better handled in order to avoid the federal probes and lawsuits.

The end of the quarter is also proving to be difficult with another delivery rush, which is putting a big strain on employees who are working 24/7 for the past few weeks.

But the core business is still sound. Tesla is delivering more vehicles than ever and customers are undeniably loving the products.

It’s not impossible to fail in those conditions, but it is hard.

Some Tesla naysayers are trying to claim that the demand for the Model 3 is not sustainable and I myself had some doubts about Tesla’s claim that new orders (before the existing backlog of reservations) are going to outpace production even at 5,000 units per week.

But I was greatly under-estimating the power of word of mouth.

I’ve sold or generated great interest in buying the Model 3 for at least 5 different people since I’ve taken delivery of my Model 3 Performance last week. And I haven’t even really driven the car much yet since I’ve been out of town most of the time since my delivery.

I expect that most new owners generate even more interest than I do when they bring their car to work and in other similar situations. It will create an exponential growth in demand for the Model 3, which isn’t even available outside of North America yet.

What is happening right now with Tesla, and electric vehicles in general, is nothing short of incredible. It’s what we EV enthusiasts have been waiting a long time for: EVs going mainstream.

That comes with a lot of noise and I encourage people to try to see through it.

To again quote Twain: “continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” The rEVolution is not perfect right now, but it is certainly improving.