(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.
Check out Bloomberg's Model 3 tracking tool here
“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.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Anne Riley Moffat in New York at ariley17@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Ferro in London at jferro10@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net.
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