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Tesla Earnings Show Record Revenues With Record Losses (techcrunch.com)
TechCrunch reports of Tesla's recent Q1 2018 earnings: Tesla reported its Q1 2018 earnings today, posting adjusted losses of $3.35 per share with revenues on $3.4 billion. This is technically a beat, as analysts expected Tesla to report a loss of $3.48 a share with revenues of $3.22 billion, up from $2.7 billion a year ago. Tesla also ended Q1 with $2.7 billion in cash, down from $3.4 billion in cash at the beginning of the year. This quarter, Tesla's net losses were a record $784.6 million ($4.19 per share). So, while it's revenue was higher than ever before, it also reported record losses. At market close today, Tesla was trading at $301.15. In after-hours, Tesla is trading around $287. In its letter to investors, Tesla provided some updates to its Model 3 production, noting it hit 2,270 cars produced per week for three straight weeks in April. Tesla said demand for the Model S and Model X is still quite strong as it hit its highest order number in Q1. "Tesla said it produced 24,728 Model S cars and X vehicles, while delivering a total of 21,815 of them," reports TechCrunch. Tesla also went on to say that they expect to be profitable in Q3 once they reach their 5,000 Model 3 cars produced per week goal.
CEO Elon Musk said the automaker will launch production of the Tesla Model Y crossover in 24 months, which Musk claims to be a "manufacturing revolution." Additionally, Musk said Tesla will publish quarterly reports about the safety of its Autopilot driver assistant feature following a high-profile Autopilot crash in March.
CEO Elon Musk said the automaker will launch production of the Tesla Model Y crossover in 24 months, which Musk claims to be a "manufacturing revolution." Additionally, Musk said Tesla will publish quarterly reports about the safety of its Autopilot driver assistant feature following a high-profile Autopilot crash in March.
https://ycharts.com/companies/GM/
Revenue: $36.1 billion
Net income: $1.05 billion
Yet GM has a *lower* market cap.
Only a fucking moron would be disappointed by 3.5 years of pre-ordered backlog, demonstrated profitability, a sustained business model with no expected future borrowing, and a new vehicle announcement.
You, sir, are a fucking moron of the highest caliber.
You have been predicting Tesla failure for years, any day now, and the only consistency is that you are constantly wrong. Over and over and over.
Car making is a long term investment. In the industry this is still a startup. Remember how Amazon lost a lot if moneyduring the few first uears?
And Musk is not in it for the miney. People keep forgetting that, probably because they do not understand that.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Only a fucking moron would be disappointed by 3.5 years of pre-ordered backlog, demonstrated profitability, a sustained business model with no expected future borrowing, and a new vehicle announcement.
I'm not sure how more than $700 million lost for the quarter is "demonstrated profitability", especially in light of the fact that this quarter and last quarter are the two largest losses it's ever had. Tesla's had some people waiting more than two years for the cars they placed deposits for, and one can count the number of profitable quarters in the company's 15-year history on one hand. 3.5 years of backlog isn't anything to be cheerful about either - eventually people are going to lose patience and demand those deposits back if the company can't deliver the cars, and those deposits are the only reason Tesla's ever been able to post a profit. Money talks and bullshit walks, and Musk continues to fall well short of the promised production targets. New vehicle announcements don't mean much if they can't even build their current offerings.
Once Fords, GMs, Toyotas seriously push electric then Tesla will be a niche player ... or purchased by one of the aforementioned in a liquidation sale
And judging by the numbers disclosed by Tesla the shorters might actually be on to something.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Maybe where you live. But even in Europe, in 2017 while 10,5% of European BEV sales were i3s, 11,5% were Model S. Nissan was barely ahead of Model S, at 12,9% (Zoe had the lead at 22,7%), which I'll never understand.
As for the UK specifically, in 2017, 41,1% of BEV sales were Leafs, but Model S was #2 at 17,9%. i3 was 5th place at 8,3%.
"WANTED: Sinking ship seeks rats."
The reason that EVs have been more common at taking over the higher end has nothing to do with "who's producing them". It's because - opposite of gasoline cars - adding range is expensive but adding power is cheap. You need a roughly constant amount of batteries whether you're going for the high end or the low end, and those batteries cost money that makes it hard to compete at the low end. So you might as well start at the high end and work your way down.
And capital costs do not stem from "who's making it". They stem from "how much you invest in making it". Historically, Tesla has invested far more in capex than the major automakers, and that puts the latter in a competitive disadvantage from an economics situation - either having to make less competitive vehicles, or having to subsidize them (and thus limit total production to keep costs down).
This situation looks to be changing (e.g. VW's capital plans are no slack, for example), and I look forward to a more competitive market a few years from now. But you can't make up this sort of deficit overnight.
"WANTED: Sinking ship seeks rats."
Unfortunately, GM lacks two things on the Bolt: a profit margin, and a market. Apart from that, a great car, really.
The lack of a profit margin is why GM hasn't made the Bolt available in more markets - for example, the Opel Ampera-E (Bolt) is ostensibly available in Europe, but very difficult to get ahold of. But even with the limited production, there's few people waiting for a Bolt, while Tesla has half a million people waiting for the Model 3.
"WANTED: Sinking ship seeks rats."
there's few people waiting for a Bolt, while Tesla has half a million people waiting for the Model 3.
GM sold all the Bolts they chose to make last year, an order of magnitude more than Tesla sold Model 3's.
GM is still in what Musk likes to call the "capex" phase of electric car production, that's true.They won't ramp up production until the cost of production justifies it.