Nope, it's not about good news or a delusion. It's simple auto industry 101. Q-o-q comparisons don't matter really. Just check the standard pattern of quartely Tesla sales/deliveries in Europe, for instance. Q3 has always been the lowest and Q4 the highest. You see similar patterns with other auto companies which dispatch their orders and deliver in certain patterns throughout the year. What really matters, is the y-o-y growth rate within the quarter. Of course, the percentages of growth in smaller and/or developing markets are much bigger than in larger or saturated markets but keeping the sizes in mind, the percentages are quite helpful to illustrate the past growth in sales.
I mean, if you step back and evaluate your stance again, you can't seriously think y-o-y growth doesn't matter. First, it makes a whole lot of a difference from an investor's standpoint if you sell just 2 cars in October of a year (see pattern argument above) or 56 cars in the same month one year later. Second, you'd probably be the first moaning if y-o-y sales numbers were declining because y-o-y growth (and the speed of growth) does matter a lot to Tesla investors. It's an important indicator of expansion into new / within small markets.
Furthermore, you might well remember but some other readers might have forgotten where we were just one year ago with regards to sales in Europe. That's again an important argument for reminding us of the past year.
Where I'd agree, is that y-o-y comparisons of monthly deliveries are less interesting than y-o-y comparisons of the same quarter. Looking forward to compara Q4 2014 to Q4 2015. In the end, this is what matters the most if you're looking for meeting the 50-55k guidance.
