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New Tesla cars can be seen lined up in a waiting area near a customer depot in London, UK.
new york
CNN
—
Tesla reported a 48% drop in first-quarter adjusted profit, missing Wall Street's downward expectations, but assured investors it plans to press ahead with development of a cheaper model due to launch next year. .
The company reported a 9% decline in total revenue, which was also below analysts' expectations. And profit margins fell by 2 percentage points.
But Tesla encouraged some investors by announcing plans to move forward with the development of a lower-priced model and saying it would begin production in the second half of 2025.
Tesla did not provide many details about the new, lower-priced model it is promising, including target prices and production volumes. And CEO Elon Musk and Tesla have a history of not sticking to car release schedules. However, the company's promise to continue developing a lower-priced model cemented the news following reports that it was canceling plans for the car altogether.
Mr. Musk doesn't even seem excited to talk about new, low-cost models, likening them to horse-drawn carriages, and spends much of his conference call with investors looking far beyond current or future electric vehicles. Tesla spent a lot of time promoting its promises. He reiterated the company's artificial intelligence capabilities and self-driving technology, predicting it could be licensed to one or more rival automakers later this year. And he talked about plans for sentient humanoid robots and a fleet of millions of driverless “robotaxis” owned by a combination of Tesla and Tesla owners, where passengers could walk into the driverless cars and ride. He said he expects to be able to travel just as comfortably. Elevator today.
“We really should be thought of as an AI robotics company,” he said. “If you value Tesla as just a car company, that's the wrong framework. If you don't believe Tesla is the solution to autonomy, I don't think you should invest in the company.”
It was a typical Musk call from Tesla's early days, when it was still struggling financially, promising paradigm-shifting innovations to get investors excited about the future.
And it worked to some extent, with recently battered Tesla (TSLA) stock having lost 42% of its value so far this year by Tuesday's close, despite its ugly financial performance reported in 2019. The stock rose 11% in off-market trading. first quarter.
Tesla and Musk were eager to change the narrative around Tesla, hoping to escape not only disappointing financial results in the first quarter but also continued bad news. Earlier this month, the company reported its first year-over-year drop in global sales since the pandemic and revealed plans to cut more than 10% of its workforce. The company also continues its year-long series of price cuts, with the latest one occurring over the weekend.
The drop in stock prices has even some Tesla bulls worried about the future of the world's most valuable automaker. However, it faces increasing competition from both established Western automakers that are rolling out their own EV products and Chinese automakers that are offering low-cost EVs.
Tesla lost its title as the world's largest EV maker to Chinese automaker BYD in the last three months of last year.
After Reuters reported earlier this month, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, who had canceled plans for a cheaper model commonly known as the Tesla Model 2 due to competition from China, did not go into details about the company's plans, saying, “Reuters… Lying again),” he tweeted. But he warned in January that Chinese automakers could “crush” rivals with low-cost EVs.
Tesla's adjusted net income was $1.5 billion, or 45 cents per share. Analysts had expected earnings of 49 cents per share.It was the smallest one I've adjusted. The quarterly profit Tesla had reported since the first quarter of 2021, when the pandemic and supply chain disruptions were still impacting results.
The company also announced negative cash flow of $2.5 billion, the first time it ran out of cash in a quarter since the pandemic began in the first quarter of 2020.
In the first quarter, the company faced a number of challenges, from a conflict in the Red Sea that caused ships bound for Europe from Asia to take a long detour around Africa, to an arson incident at a factory in Germany, to a gradual expansion. , said he had experienced numerous challenges. The latest Model 3 is on display at the Fremont, California, factory.
