(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. will probably report next week that it missed Model 3 production targets for the first quarter, a growing number of analysts predict.
Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache projects that the electric-car maker averaged about 800 of the sedans a week in the first quarter, with the weekly run rate now approaching about 1,100, he wrote Thursday in a note to clients.
Loup Ventures’ Gene Munster sees output at 1,500 to 2,000 Model 3 cars per week, still below the 2,500-a-week rate that Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk had been targeting for the quarter.
“It’s going to be worse before it gets better,” Munster said on Bloomberg Television Thursday. “They’re probably going to miss their Model 3 number in terms of what the Street is at. I don’t think it’s going to be a surprise to investors.”
Still, Munster said he’s optimistic on the company, which has seen its stock battered following a credit-rating downgrade and an investigation into a fatal crash involving a Model X.
“It’s rare you have a car that has the kind of pre-orders that the Model 3 has,” Munster said. “They don’t break that out anymore but it’s probably somewhere around 400,000 pre-orders and so there’s more demand than supply, so I think that he will emphasize that.”
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