To The Moon

S&P 500 was up 2.6% yesterday, giving some respite to investors after making a new low in 2022 last Friday.

But Tesla, being the fourth largest component in S&P 500, was down 8.6%.

The chief reason could be due to the poorer than expected vehicle deliveries.

Tesla reported 343,000 deliveries in 3Q2022 which missed analysts’ expectations of 364,660 vehicles delivered by 6%.

This is still 42% higher than the 241,300 units in 3Q last year.

Here were the deliveries in third quarters and their year-on-year growth rates:

3Q2016: 24,500

3Q2017: 26,200 (+7%)

3Q2018: 83,500 (+219%)

3Q2019: 97,000 (+16%)

3Q2020: 139,300 (+44%)

3Q2021: 241,300 (+73%)

3Q2022: 343,000 (+42%)

The growth rates fluctuated from as low as 7% to as high as 219%. But it doesn't change the fact that a 42% growth isn't shabby at all.

It shouldn't be about its projection either because Tesla has set a production target of 495,000 in Q4, which is 62% higher than last year's if achieved.

The Shanghai Giga Factory has recently completed an upgrade and deliveries have tripled and the backlog of orders has significantly reduced.

Tesla sales in China has also increased in Aug 2022 despite the economic slowdown.

Hence, it should not warrant a 9% sell down during a day when the market was overall bullish.

Could it be about the Optimus robot introduced during Tesla AI Day last Friday?

The humanoid robot was shown to be able to do some human tasks like watering plants, carrying boxes and working in a factory.

Musk said in last year's Tesla AI Day, "those who are insightful or who listen carefully will understand that Optimus ultimately will be worth more than the car business and worth more than full self-driving. That’s my firm belief."

He believes that the robot would be available to customers in 3 to 5 years time for less than $20,000.

There're no details about how much Tesla has spent on developing the robot. Maybe investors are worried that Tesla is overstretching itself when self-driving isn't a stable and trusted technology yet. Not forgetting that EV rivals are hot on Tesla's wheels too.

Or it could be the idea of having to live with bots among us that has spooked investors - as seen in many dystopian robot movies.

Some of us may think that Musk is eccentric or even crazy.

We still don't know what caused the drop in Tesla's share price but we know one thing: Musk is not merely a dreamer as he has always been able to engineer the dreams into reality - be it electric vehicles, autonomous driving, satellite internet, rockets and now humanoid robots.

Maybe he might just be able to create another winning product with the bot and sustain Tesla's growth way into the future.

$Tesla Motors(TSLA)$