Tesla Shanghai Still Down; Elon Still Quiet

The forced shutdown at Tesla Shanghai continues indefinitely as Covid cases surge alarmingly across China. And normally bombastic CEO Elon Musk, who usually complains loudly & often about government o

Tesla Shanghai

Bloomberg reports the Tesla Shanghai is down 12 days and counting on burgeoning Covid19 outbreak in China. 

This comes as Tesla already seems to be struggling to meet ambitious expectations for record results every single quarter this year, particularly in China—the only market where it actually makes money (see my report Will Tesla Get Good News This Week? on 2/28/22).

I suspect March results, due out later this week, will confirm my concerns that deliveries continued to slip versus last year with Model 3 potentially down again

and Model Y’s ramp up pace slowing. By comparison, local China competitors like BYD Co. already have reported impressive results for March and the full first quarter that easily topped Tesla.

And yet still no ugly rants and mean tweets to the China government from normally very vocal Musk, who rarely misses a chance to complain about government oversight.

This remains quite the contrast versus his behavior when US authorities were forced to do the same—orders which he also defied even as it put Tesla workers at risk.

Recall my recent report: 
Notice How Tesla Behaves So Much Better For China Than The US?

Stay tuned.

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Tesla repurchased its 5.3% senior notes in the third quarter of 2021 as I projected, though I doubt we’ve seen the last of Tesla as a bond issuer:

Now stay tuned for the second step I described: a quickly shopped, likely $2-4 billion inordinately low coupon bond deal, rated now at low investment grade as I expected (see Tesla's Car Business Finally Turned A Profit. Really. Time For A Big Bond Deal). It could even be appealing... if it’s priced at T+100 bps or better.

Until then, I have Tesla: Not Rated.

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