Tesla CEO Elon Musk has asked for a slowdown in deliveries in Norway in the first quarter. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said he was requesting a production slowdown. The error has been corrected.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has asked for a slowdown in deliveries of his electric cars in Norway, citing problems tied to the local manufacturing supply chain. According to CNBC, referencing a local industry publication, Electrek, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based car maker's problems in Oslo are linked to a dearth of "competent transporters" that comply with local road regulations. Shipments have been prone to accidents, the reports said. Electrek characterized Norway as Tesla's largest "market per capita." Via Twitter, Musk said "I have just asked our team to slow down deliveries. It is clear that we are exceeding the local logistics capacity due to batch build and delivery. Customer happiness & safety matter more than a few extra cars this quarter." Tesla's shares TSLA, -2.45% closed down 2.5% on Friday, registered a 6.2% weekly decline, and are down 3.2% so far in 2018. By comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average [:DJIA] is down 4.8% thus far in 2018, while the S&P 500 index SPX, -2.10% is on track for a year-to-date drop of 3.5%, nearly all of that year-to-date decline for the benchmarks have been generated over the past week of trading, as investors worried about geopolitics and the threat of a trade war. Tesla is set to report its quarterly results on May 3, according to FactSet data.