For a long time, Tesla was able to easily sell every electric car it built, but the market cooled off – and the competition became stronger. Elon Musk’s company is feeling the effects.
Electric car pioneer Tesla has closed the second quarter in a row with a significant decline in profits. In the months March to June, the company led by tech billionaire Elon Musk earned around 1.48 billion dollars (1.36 billion euros) – 45 percent less than a year earlier.
After presenting the quarterly figures, Musk once again tried to appease investors with promises of a great future for Tesla thanks to self-driving cars and the humanoid robot Optimus. At the same time, however, he postponed the presentation of the robotaxi prototype from the beginning of August to October 10. And he now announced that production of the Optimus robots will take place by the end of next year. They will then be sold to other companies in 2026. Musk has often been too optimistic in such predictions in the past.
Accordingly, investors were difficult to convince this time: the share price fell by almost eight percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Sales grow only through energy business
Tesla’s quarterly sales rose by two percent to 25.5 billion dollars (23.5 billion euros). This was mainly due to the growing energy and power storage business, which doubled to three billion dollars. In the car business, revenues fell by seven percent to around 19.9 billion dollars (18.3 billion euros).
The electric car manufacturer, which for a long time was able to sell every vehicle it built, is feeling the effects of the cooling market and increasing competition from other manufacturers. In the second quarter, deliveries fell by almost five percent to just under 444,000 electric cars. However, this was even better than analysts had expected. At the same time, repeated price reductions cut into profits.
No sales forecast for 2024
Last year, Tesla delivered a total of around 1.8 million vehicles. There is still no concrete forecast for this year – only the admission that the pace of growth will be slower.
There is still uncertainty about Tesla’s plans for a cheaper model that could boost sales. Musk has now announced a “more affordable” vehicle for the first half of 2025.
Industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the Center Automotive Research in Bochum estimates that Tesla will only sell around 1.6 million vehicles this year. This means that production capacity would be less than 70 percent utilized. “Traditional car manufacturers would be clearly in the red with this level of capacity utilization,” stressed Dudenhöffer. In the first half of the year, staff reductions, among other things, helped to keep costs under control.
Advanced “autopilot” software also in Europe?
In the USA, Tesla has been letting drivers test an advanced version of the “Autopilot” assistance system for months. The company has long called it “Full Self-Driving” (FSD). However, in reality, a Tesla cannot currently be operated as an autonomous car and the driver must always remain in control. Therefore, the current FSD version was given the additional title “supervised”.
Musk now announced that Tesla will soon apply for approval of the FSD technology from regulators in Europe, China and other regions. “And I think we will probably get it by the end of the year.”
Several automakers have shown interest in integrating FSD into their cars, Musk said, without naming the companies. He also acknowledged that even if a deal is concluded, it could be years before Tesla sees licensing revenue from such a collaboration.
The Tesla boss also expressed his conviction that FSD may only rarely require human intervention at the wheel this year. “I would be shocked if we don’t get it done next year.”
Source: Stern
