Tesla Burns Through $2 Billion In 2017 (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Tesla reported record revenue for 2017, floated by customer deposits of the recently announced Semi truck and Roadster sports car. Despite its optimistic sales numbers, Model 3 production issues and cash flow problems haunt the company, but Tesla insists its on track to meet its production goals of 5,000 cars a week by mid-2018. Tesla reported $3.3 billion in revenue, which was expected, but also posted a $771 million quarterly loss -- its largest quarterly loss ever. The company reported a negative free cash flow of $276.7 million. And it reported a net loss of $2.24 billion in 2017, a significant increase over the $773 million net loss it reported in 2016.

Comments

Re:Gotta break eggs to make an Omelet.

[mspohr]

So far, Tesla has produced enough so that people are eager to throw money at it. No problem raising funds.
They are making cars and have plans for new models and trucks and energy storage and solar panels and roofs. That takes money. As long as they deliver, they can continue to raise money to grow. If they stopped spending on new stuff today, they would be profitable but wouldn't have much of a future.
It took Amazon years to become profitable and now Bezos is world's richest man.

Re:Sunk Costs Fallacy

[letthelightin]

People don't mind tossing their money into the Tesla furnace because it offers hope in the future in terms of real social value, as opposed to financial numbers value. They are the only public facing company making any significant efforts toward a better future.

Tax changes

[DogDude]

Everybody's taking a loss in 2017 and posting profits in 2018 to take advantage of the tax changes.