Late Wednesday night, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk sent out an e-mail congratulating his tens of thousands of employees.
"Just amazing how well you executed, especially in such difficult times. I am so proud to work with you!" read the email in its entirety.
Tesla is expected to report its second-quarter vehicle delivery and production numbers after the bell on Thursday, and Musk’s Wednesday email suggests that Tesla hit its goals. It follows Musk’s exhortation earlier in the week to “go all out” as “breaking even is looking super tight.”
According to a consensus of analysts as of July 1, Wall Street expects Tesla to deliver 72,000 vehicles for the period. (Estimates range from 39,000 to 86,000 units expected.)
Auto sales slumped during the second quarter after COVID-19 outbreaks led to health restrictions on households and businesses, mass layoffs and wage cuts.
Tesla had to close its main U.S. car plant in Fremont, California, for several weeks due to health restrictions. Musk defied and sued regulators in Alameda County over their orders and returned to full operations a few days before getting official clearance to do so.
To revitalize demand, Tesla cut prices of its electric vehicles during Q2 by as much as 6% in North America. It also made pricing changes in China, where its Shanghai plant came back online relatively quickly after a health-related shutdown.
Tesla fired ahead $99.28, or 8.9%, to begin Thursday at $1,218.91.
