Unpaid Parking

Tesla’s massive pileup

Bronson Stamp

Tesla's unsold inventory is creating stockpiles you can see from space

Where have all the Teslas gone? Stored in parking lots, every one.

6/6/24 2:04PM

Last quarter, Tesla produced 433,371 autos. It delivered just 386,810, meaning there were about 47,000 extra Teslas around, more than double what it was a year ago and the company’s biggest imbalance to date.

This surplus is happening as the electric car company deals with a number of headwinds, including slowing electric vehicle sales growth, growing competition, and chaotic leadership.

“The primary driver of this was an increase in inventory from a mismatch between builds,” Tesla Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja said of the company’s -$2.5 billion in free cash flow (spending on AI compute was also to blame). “We expect the inventory built to reverse in the second quarter and free cash flow to return to positive again.”

Until then, we wondered: Where have all the unsold Teslas gone?

I used satellite imagery and object detection analytics from the earth observation marketplace SkyFi, to take a look at some images of Tesla’s Gigafactory outside Austin, Texas. Comparing a Thursday from last October to a Thursday in March, you can see that the parking lots outlined in green in the images below became much more full.

Tesla Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. Top: October 2023. Bottom: March 2024.

A production lead at the gigafactory who was recently laid off along with more than 10% of Tesla’s workforce told Sherwood those parking lots hold finished Teslas before they’re shipped off.

Tesla does store inventory in the other parking lots but those are primarily for employees and contractors. We were unable to discern if extra Teslas are being parked in those, too. Tesla did not respond to questions about the images or requests for comment on this story.

SkyFi also shared satellite imagery of Chesterfield Mall, a soon-to-be-demolished mall west of St. Louis, where Jalopnik previously reported Tesla has been storing excess inventory.

Chesterfield mall Teslas — Chesterfield Mall outside St. Louis. Top: October 2022. Bottom: May 2024

The firm counted 465 Teslas parked there in May, bringing in much-needed revenue for the doomed mall, where before there had been none.

We were unable to get comparable satellite imagery of Tesla’s Fremont factory but a series of drone videos by a YouTuber show what look to be increasingly cramped lots across the property. Here’s a flyover from last week:

People have reported Tesla stock taking up space at a mall nearby the factory as well as in parking lots and airports around the world. Just this week, a local news network in Australia showed aerial footage of a “Tesla graveyard,” a port in Melbourne where “thousands” of unsold Teslas are piling up.

Of course, some of these Teslas could be en route to happy owners. But the mass of them piling up is getting harder to ignore.

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JetBlue is raising its bag fees as fuel costs squeeze airlines

JetBlue will reportedly hike its bag fees, as the cost of jet fuel continues to climb amid the war in Iran. It’s the latest example of carriers finding ways to push rising costs onto travelers.

Last week, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that if fuel prices remain elevated, fares would need to rise another 20% for his airline to break even this year.

As CNBC reported, when one airline raises fees, others tend to follow.

Earlier this month, JetBlue hiked its first-quarter outlook for operating revenue per seat mile to between 5% and 7%, saying that strong Q1 demand helped “partially offset additional expenses realized from operational disruptions and rising fuel costs.” Now, the carrier appears to be making moves to further boost revenue to offset those costs.

Earlier on Monday, JetBlue rival Alaska Air lowered its Q1 profit forecast. The refining margins for the carrier’s cheapest fuel option — sourced from Singapore and representing about 20% of Alaska’s overall supply — have spiked 400% since February.

JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.