Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) spikes after leaked email from Elon Musk hints at 500k deliveries
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) spiked after a leaked email from CEO Elon Musk said it “would be exciting if we can exceed” half a million vehicle deliveries in 2020.
At 12:14 PM EST, TSLA stock was trading at $420.52. After a Tweet from @DeltaOne indicated that Elon Musk had sent an email to Tesla employees saying that if the company’s goal of delivering half a million cars could be exceeded, it would be exciting.
By the time the Tweet caught traction, the stock had spiked to over $428.
It undoubtedly would establish 2020 as a groundbreaking year for the electric automaker. Despite having both of its production plants closed due to the pandemic in 2020, Tesla would still accomplish the 500,000 delivery goal set for itself at the beginning of the year.
ELON MUSK IN MAIL TO TESLA EMPLOYEES SAYS "WOULD BE EXCITING IF WE CAN EXCEED" 500,000 ANNUAL PRODUCTION IN 2020$TSLA
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) October 7, 2020
For perspective, Tesla delivered between 367,000 and 368,000 cars in 2019. During the year, it only had one fully-operational production facility, which is in Fremont, California.
Tesla officially started delivering cars from the Giga Shanghai production plant in China in January. The facility is currently producing the Model 3 sedan at a rate of about 200,000 vehicles annually. With Tesla’s 2019 production figures from Fremont, which have expanded due to the Model Y’s introduction, Giga Shanghai’s output should put the automaker well over its 500,000 car goal.
However, things rarely go according to plan. Shanghai was completely closed for several weeks in February, and Fremont was shut down for nearly a month and a half. The closings put a significant dent in Tesla’s Q2 numbers, and the company only delivered 90,891 cars. To keep pace with the yearly goal, Tesla needs to keep an average of 125,000 cars per quarter.
After a record performance in Q3 with 145,036 units produced and 139,300 cars delivered, Tesla is on its way to achieving its goal. However, the company will need to deliver around 190,000 cars in Q4 to achieve the 500,000 vehicle threshold.
The fourth quarter has been Tesla’s strongest period in past years. In 2019, Tesla delivered 112,095 cars to owners compared to the 95,356 and 97,186 in the second and third quarters, respectively.
Whether Tesla reaches its 500,000 car goal for the year comes down to a couple of things: Manufacturing efficiency and demand. The company has plenty of demand, and one of its main focuses has been to increase manufacturing accuracy and efficiency. Musk has been vocal about the challenges that have come from mass-producing cars, but Tesla has managed to overcome the adversity through experience.
At the time of writing, TSLA was trading at $429.08, up 3.66% on the day.
Disclaimer: Joey Klender is a TSLA Shareholder.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
Four Raptor engines failed to ignite at T-zero, forcing SpaceX to scrub Starship Flight 13 Thursday.
SpaceX scrubbed the Starship Flight 13 launch attempt Thursday evening at the last possible moment, after four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence. The 90-minute window had opened at 6:45 p.m. EDT from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and the countdown had proceeded without issue all day, with more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen being fully loaded into the rocket before the automated abort triggered. SpaceX’s launch directors posted on X, “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt,” and shut down the livestream shortly after.
Musk confirmed the root cause within hours. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he wrote on X. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.” SpaceX engineers began draining propellant tanks immediately and Booster 20 was rolled back to its hangar for inspection.
The timing adds a layer of significance that did not exist during any of the previous 12 Starship flights. This is the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch Starship since the company made its stock market debut in June, listing under ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Public investors are now watching every Starship outcome in real time, and a last-second abort carries more visibility than it would have six months ago.
Flight 13 was designed to be one of the most consequential tests in the program’s history. It was set to carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload Starship has ever attempted to deploy. Six of those satellites carried external cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from the outside during flight, which would act as a self-inspection approach SpaceX has never attempted before. The mission also needed to complete a Raptor engine relight in space, a step SpaceX skipped on Flight 12 in May after losing an engine during ascent. That Flight 12 booster also flipped 90 degrees off course during its boostback burn when five engines failed to reignite.
SpaceX has not announced an official next launch date. Musk’s “early next week” window points to July 21 or 22 at the earliest, pending the engine swap and a return to the pad.
Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli responded to rumors of an imminent bankruptcy that was reportedly being mulled after a report stated the automaker was working with the firm AlixPartners to iron out its next steps.
The company felt a massive loss on Wall Street yesterday, as the report essentially pushed the stock down as much as 55 percent on Tuesday.
The report, published initially by Eletric-Vehicles.com, claimed Lucid was essentially in dire straits and was told by AlixPartners, a commonly used restructuring advisor, to either take shares private or file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Lucid’s head of Communications, Nick Twork, immediately challenged the report and stated the company “has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year.”
Now, the company’s CEO is chiming in as well, stating that the report is “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Napoli said:
“Lucid is not considering bankruptcy or a transaction to take the company private. Those reports are false. The Board did not explore either scenario. Period.
As disclosed in our most recent quarterly filing, Lucid has sufficient liquidity to fund its operations well into next year.
We work with outside advisors to improve operational performance and execution. They are not advising Lucid on a take-private transaction or bankruptcy, and any suggestion that they have recommended either course of action to management or the Board is false.
My priority is clear: turn this company around. That is where the leadership team and I are focused.
I look forward to providing a full update during our quarterly earnings call on August 4th.”
🚨 Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli calls rumors of financial issues “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Read his full remarks here: https://t.co/t3Pg1NHvzy pic.twitter.com/LvHUPhO4Qf
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 15, 2026
It seems pretty clear that Lucid is confident things will be okay, and, to be honest, they should not have much to worry about, especially considering the company has been backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) for years. It has solid financial backing, and its sales, while weak, are pretty much right on par with a company of this age.
Lucid also sent a Cease & Desist letter to the publication for their report.
Lucid shares have rebounded nicely and are up nearly 21 percent at the time of publication. As soon as the company dispelled the rumors of bankruptcy yesterday, the stock began to climb back toward more reasonable levels.
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group has denied rumors of an imminent bankruptcy after a report from this morning sent the stock on a dramatic drop on Wall Street, seeing losses of more than 40 percent during trading hours.
Lucid’s Director of Communications, Nick Twork, responded to the report from Eletric-Vehicles.com, which stated the company’s restructuring advisor, AlixPartners, was asked to review two decisions: taking Lucid shares private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The report also claims AlixPartners told the Lucid board to “concentrate on Gravity production while improving its quality, and to temporarily hold back the Lucid Air, the sedan that has defined the company since its launch.”
Twork said:
$LCID The rumors are completely false. The company has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year, as recently published in its last quarterly filings, and it has not formed any special Board committee to explore the scenarios reported today. Our focus is…
— Nick Twork (@ntwork) July 14, 2026
Shares rebounded after the response to the report, halving its losses as the trading day neared 3 p.m. Eastern.
Lucid has struggled to get its sales off the ground and into more respectable numbers, but the company is in its early years, when things are hard to begin with. It is also backed by several notable investors, including the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has nearly limitless money and likely would not ditch an investment of this size so soon.
Lucid shares were down just 14 percent at the time of publication, a far cry from the 55 percent its losses topped out at during the day.
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
Elon Musk secretly acquires $1B energy company to power the AI future
