The more you see funny financial manipulation associated with a product, the more you can infer that the product is doomed as a product. It's not clear that Tesla can genuinely manufacture its cars at a profit.
That article is opinion mixed in with misinterpretations mixed in with citing from SEC filings.
Pick any random company and read their SEC filing, and you will surely think they will crash and burn in short order.
[..] a number of components are currently obtained from single or limited sources, which subjects the Company to significant supply and pricing risks.
Many components [..] are at times subject to industry-wide shortages and significant commodity pricing fluctuations
A significant concentration of this manufacturing is currently performed by a small number of outsourcing partners, often in single locations. Certain of these outsourcing partners are the sole-sourced suppliers of components and manufacturers for many of the Company’s products.
[..] the Company must make significant investments in research and development. [..] In contrast, many of the Company’s competitors seek to compete primarily through aggressive pricing and very low cost structures
Due to the highly volatile and competitive nature of the industries in which the Company competes, the Company must continually introduce new products, services and technologies, enhance existing products and services, and effectively stimulate customer demand for new and upgraded products.
Substantially all of the Company’s manufacturing is performed in whole or in part by a few outsourcing partners located primarily in Asia.
Many of the Company’s products include third-party intellectual property, which requires licenses from those third parties. [..] There is, however, no assurance that the necessary licenses can be obtained on acceptable terms or at all.
Thats Apple. There are a bunch more of these, too.
Banks aren't willing to do a lease program with the Tesla because they don't believe it will hold its value.
Tesla can't self sponsor leases because they don't have the cash and might not be able to cash in the full credit (since they haven't been making good profits).
This provides the customer a lease like situation given the above.
To me, this plan implies that Tesla may be in big trouble. They are having trouble with financing these cars - that's a huge problem that they will have to find a way through, and this scheme strikes me as desperate (although clever).
Apparently, Wall St agrees with me, as the stock is down 8% today as I type this.
If you've ever read the 10-K for any corporation, they sound like there is no possibility that company will make any money whatsoever and that you'd be better off burning your cash than investing it.
They're not reasoned documents, they're a picture of the absolute worst-case scenario.
http://247wallst.com/2013/04/01/teslas-awful-sales-news/
That results in "ridiculous numbers"
http://www.businessinsider.com/can-you-really-get-a-tesla-mo...
in Tesla's latest financial claims.