Tesla conference call, no surprises.
Due to the unsatisfactory earnings conference call, Tesla's stock price fell after hours.
Overnight, Tesla released its second-quarter earnings report, with quarterly revenue reaching a historic high but profit margin declining. Overall, Tesla's stock price remained stable after the financial report was released, but it fell after hours because Tesla failed to disclose the accurate specifications and delivery date of Tesla and Robotaxi during the conference call.
In addition, Tesla and other Tesla executives also stated that due to summer factory upgrades and shutdowns, production is expected to decrease in the third quarter, causing Tesla's stock price to drop by about 4% after hours.
In the second quarter, Tesla achieved $24.93 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $0.82, exceeding analysts' expectations. However, the gross margin also declined more than expected, reaching only 18.2%, and free cash flow was only $1.005 billion, far below the expected $2.18 billion by analysts.
Tesla explained in the report that the main reason for the low profit margin is the "blended pricing" of the cars it sells, which leads to a decrease in the average selling price. At the same time, the increase in internal design battery production also dragged down the profit margin due to cost growth.
As Tesla has been reducing prices for some time, the decline in profit margin was expected in the market, so the earnings report did not cause significant market fluctuations. What really disappointed investors were the news about Tesla and Robotaxi.
Tesla: No Accurate Mass Production Date
Last week, Tesla officially announced on Twitter that the first Tesla has been manufactured at the Texas Gigafactory. This news once excited the crowd interested in this model.
However, Tesla stated this time that although Tesla's "production tools" have been launched, Tesla is currently only producing "release candidate" versions:
We are currently testing Tesla worldwide for final certification and validation. This may be the most unique car product in decades, accompanied by experiments and tests of new technologies.
Regarding the mass production and delivery of Tesla, Tesla stated during the conference call that Tesla will start mass production next year and begin deliveries later this year. They also mentioned that Tesla "will include a large amount of technology" and that production volume is difficult to predict.
As for the size of Tesla, Tesla stated in the earnings report that the length of this model is less than 19 feet (about 5.8 meters), and the cargo bed length will exceed 6 feet (about 1.83 meters), which is shorter than Ford's best-selling pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning.
Tesla claims that it is the first pickup truck with a length of less than 19 feet, which allows it to fit into standard 20-foot garages that other trucks cannot enter.
Tesla claims that Tesla is the first truck with a length of less than 19 feet, with four doors and a chassis over 6 feet long, allowing it to fit into 20-foot garages that other trucks have difficulty installing.
However, this data is based on the current "candidate release" version, and there may be differences in the data of the actual production model. It has been reported that this pickup truck is slightly smaller than the original prototype.
Robotaxi: No surprises
Another anticipated surprise from the market, the autonomous taxi Robotaxi, also did not materialize this time.
Earlier this year, Tesla stated that it hoped to upgrade its autonomous driving system to achieve the technological level required for Robotaxi. Analysts also valued this emerging business at up to $870 billion.
However, Tesla did not disclose any information about Robotaxi during the earnings conference. But regarding autonomous driving, Elon Musk still insisted that Tesla's autonomous driving technology will surpass human capabilities by the end of this year:
I know I'm a kid who's been shouting about autonomous driving cars.
You see a lot of AI companies doing LLMs, and I'm thinking, if they're so good, why can't they make autonomous driving cars? Because it's harder!
Since 2016, Tesla has been promising to deliver autonomous driving cars and at that time promised to complete a coast-to-coast trip across the United States without any driver intervention in 2017.
So far, this goal has not been achieved.
Currently, Tesla's driver-assist system Autopilot and FSD, which are available in the US market, require a human driver to be ready to take over steering or braking at any time.