Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks a recession will last until the spring of 2024, after saying earlier this week that "a recession of sorts" in China and Europe was weighing on demand for its electric cars.
"Just guessing, but probably until spring of '24," Musk said on Twitter (see below) after a user asked him how long the recession would last.
Shares of Tesla slid 6.6 percent to close at $207.28 on Thursday, a day after Musk told analysts on a conference call that the weakness in China and Europe was causing demand to be "a little harder than it otherwise would be."
While Musk told analysts that Tesla has "excellent demand" for the current quarter, the EV maker said it would miss its annual delivery target due to limited transportation capacity.
Earlier this month, Tesla said it delivered a record 343,830 EVs in the latest quarter. But not only did that miss analysts estimates of 359,162, it also fell short of Tesla's production of 365,923, a rarity for the automaker whose deliveries have been higher or similar to production in many of recent quarters.
Musk was evasive on the subject of demand during a July conference call, saying at first that macroeconomic uncertainty might have some impact on demand for its EVs, but when pressed for details by an analyst, he said the company did not have a demand problem but a production problem.
Musk said he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy and that Tesla needed to cut about 10 percent of staff, according to a June email seen by Reuters
Later, he said the reduction would apply only to salaried workers.
Tesla shares have lost more than a third of their value so far this year. They fell as much as 9 percent to hit a 16-month low on Thursday.
"The results will likely add to debates about demand destruction that ensued after 3Q deliveries tracked -5 percent below company-compiled consensus," JP Morgan said in a report.
Tesla missed automotive gross margin expectations on Wednesday, as costs to ramp up production at its new factories in Berlin and Austin weighed.
"The bullish narrative is clearly hitting a rough patch as Tesla must now prove again to the Street that the robust growth story is running into a myriad of logistics issues as opposed to demand softening," Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said.
