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Tesla Logged $713 Million In Revenue In Q1 and Built 7,535 Cars
cartechboy (2660665) writes "Tesla just announced its first-quarter earnings and the numbers are interesting. It logged revenue of $713 million on deliveries of 6,457 Model S electric cars. It's worth noting that's basically the number of vehicles it said it would sell in the quarter, but that number is slightly down from the prior quarter. It built a total of 7,535 Model S cars in the quarter as it built inventory as shipments began to China where sales just started last month. Net orders in North America grew 10 percent, and production for the second quarter is expected to increase to 8,500-9,000 Model S cars. Tesla expects to deliver 35,000 cars during the 2014 calendar year. Musk told analysts that China's enthusiastic and that government support is crucial. The Model X is delayed until spring of 2015 with production-design prototypes being ready in the fourth quarter. Tesla hopes to possibly break ground as early as next month on its gigafactory, though the location has yet to be announced. Of course, the stock market is already reacting to these numbers and is currently down nearly 3 percent in after hours trading."
Well thank goodness the stock market is such an accurate gauge of a company's fiscal health and true value (right Facebook?) It's all rational investors making carefully considered trades in an open and transparent marketplace.
There is a lot I don't understand at financial reports, but these numbers really strike me as odd.
How can you have a revenue of 731 M$ while producing in the same period about 500 M$ worth of merchandise? Said otherwise, for each car produced in Q1, they have a revenue of about 100 k$. I know the Tesla is not a cheep car, but that seems excessive. Or did I miss something here?
Not mentioned in the post for some reason was the loss of $49.8 million for the quarter compared to an $11.3 million profit in the same quarter last year. Accumulated losses since 2009 are on the order of $800 million.
http://files.shareholder.com/d...
Making cars is hard. Making a profit doing it is harder still.
Looking at the big picture I think any Elon Musk story is kind of interesting. He is an uber geek trying to shift the world to sustainable energy and colonize Mars. Fast Cars and Rocket Ships are every kids dream as they said on 60 minutes.
This is a site for nerds. Name a nerdier topic than Tesla.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
A 60 kWh battery, assuming you don't mind cycling it to 100% discharge, which is extremely severe treatment, represents about 3-4 days of electricity for a house with very light electricity use based on my electric meter, and those of people I know. OTOH, where I am, sunlight is not uncommonly extremely poor for periods longer than that. Unless your photovoltaics are over proportioned by 10-20 times, or you've got at least twice the battery, it ain't gonna cut it.
It would be nice to be able to tap the battery with an inverter during power outages though. In my area when you lose power, you lose water supply (and heat of course). Not very good for sanitation. There's nothing to make you appreciate flush toilets more than 2-3 days without well water.
How can you have a revenue of 731 M$ while producing in the same period about 500 M$ worth of merchandise?
Because Tesla doesn't just make money selling cars. Read their financial statements and they'll detail their sources of revenue. Nothing particularly surprising there. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised to see Tesla end up making a big portion of their revenue manufacturing battery packs and power trains for other auto makers.
Your house is very inefficient, but not untypical of some parts of the world.
Nissan has been offering this service for a few years in Japan. You use your Leaf as a UPS in the event of power failure. They say you can run your essential appliances (fridge/freezer, lighting) for a few days. You can also use it for a bit of solar PV smoothing. It isn't really designed to let you go off-grid though.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Computer holography, Path-tracing, the fast-multiple methods for radiosity-- and if it has to be automotive related: alternative thermodynamic cycles for engines, field modulated magnetic couplings (like the ones magnomatics are making as gearboxes/electric drive systems for cars) or mass-production of parts from fibre reinforced plastic.
All of these are nerdier, but perhaps not as easily digested.