Tesla Motors Inc Wins Yet Another Award

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Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has already won several awards for its Model S sedan, and now it has another one. USA Today reports that the car received the highest score among all cars in its Total Quality Index. That means the electric car beat not only other electric vehicles but all vehicles currently on the market.

Tesla just happens to be electric

Research firm Strategic Firm said Tesla Motors has created an electric car with features that are so good that it beats all other cars. A senior vice president said Tesla’s Model S is “a luxurious sports sedan that has true innovation, rocket-like speed and drive feeling, that happens to be an electric vehicle.” He added that other automakers should think about whether building more electric vehicles will impress “the heck out of customers” because it could result in what they see as “super-cool transportation.”

In conducting the study, Strategic Vision said it polled more than 38,000 car owners, asking them to rank vehicles in each category based on their perspective of the vehicles.

Concerns about Tesla demand

Some investors have been worried about Tesla Motors’ decreasing deliveries and whether it means that the automaker is seeing a decline in demand. In a research note dated June 27, 2014, Trefis analysts said this view is incorrect. Those who are worried about demand believe that it has peaked because of Tesla’s battery supply constraints. However, Trefis analysts say Tesla’s actual backlog greatly exceeds its production capacity. The only way the automaker will be able to reduce the amount of time between orders and deliveries is by ramping up production even more.

The Trefis team noted that Tesla Motors delivered 2,100 Model S sedans in the first two months of the first quarter, compared to 2,200 in the first quarter. They suggest that this isn’t seasonal because deliveries for the Chevy Volt, Toyota Prius and Nissan Lead all increased during the second quarter. With the current pace, they estimate that Tesla will have to deliver 3,150 vehicles in the U.S. The automaker guided for 7,500 deliveries in the current quarter, which means it will have to deliver 4,350 vehicles in Europe and China. This would be almost a 50% increase from the 2,957 vehicles delivered in the first quarter.

Tesla in Norway, U.K., and China

During the first quarter of the year, sales in Norway, which offers many incentives for electric car owners, helped Tesla beat its sales target. Registration numbers indicate that Tesla sold almost 1,500 cars in Norway in March, which is almost three times as many as it delivered there as in January and February.

Management at Tesla Motors said they sold 6,457 cars in the first quarter and began filling up its European and Asian delivery pipelines. Trefis analysts note that it takes time for cars delivered to foreign markets to reach their destination, although they were surprised they early second quarter numbers were so long, especially since Tesla filled the pipeline in the previous quarter. They say the automaker must meet the order backlog from China and the U.K. in order to meet its delivery target for the current quarter.

Trefis continues to place a valuation of $150 a share on Tesla Motors. Shares of Tesla rose more than 1% in early trading this morning.

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