Tesla Gets a Vote of Confidence as Supplier Orders Accelerate

(Bloomberg) -- The Tesla Model 3 debate received further fodder on Tuesday after JL Warren Capital LLC said it has noticed “encouraging signs” of a potential pickup in the pace of production.

Suppliers for the electric vehicle maker’s more affordable sedan have started seeing increased orders, the research firm said in a note to clients. SAS Automotive, a German cockpit manufacturer and assembler with one plant in California, ordered 20,000 display screens for the Model 3 in May, and 10,000 in June from a sole producer in China, according to the research firm.

For the third quarter, the Chinese supplier plans to produce about 58,000 screens, translating to just under 20,000 per month. The number is fairly close to Tesla’s targeted weekly Model 3 production goal of 5,000 cars, a clip the company expects to reach less than two months from now.

The month had started off on a rather tumultuous note for Tesla, with shares sliding 5.6 percent on May 3 after modestly positive first-quarter results were overshadowed by a rather unusual conference call where CEO Elon Musk refused to answer some analyst questions about the granular financial details of the company. But Tesla bounced back over the next two sessions, amid the Musk’s pledge to “burn” bearish investors.

To contact the reporter on this story: Esha Dey in New York at edey@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Courtney Dentch at cdentch1@bloomberg.net, Scott Schnipper

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.