Yahoo Autos Tesla's Profit Is Down in Back-to-Back Quarters, Robotaxi Delayed
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Tesla's profit has now been down for two straight quarters, with the latest Q2 result falling 45 percent compared with last year.
On yesterday's earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also told shareholders that the robotaxi will be delayed a few months, with its reveal now set for October 10.
Musk also expects the first unsupervised full sell-driving ride to "for sure" happen next year; he said the Tesla Roadster is expected to enter production in 2025 too.
For the second straight quarter, Tesla's profit has fallen. The company made $1.5 billion between April and June, but that's down 45 percent compared with the same timeframe last year when it made $2.7 billion, as reported by the New York Times. During the first quarter of 2024, Tesla reported a 55 percent drop in profit. Along with posting its second-quarter financial results, Tesla yesterday held a conference call with investors. CEO Elon Musk also spoke about the company's future investments and plans to reveal new products such as the robotaxi, which he said will be delayed by a couple of months.
While Tesla built more cars that it sold in the first quarter of the year, it managed to do better over the past three months. Tesla produced 410,831 total models and delivered 443,956. However, that's still down from the 466,140 it delivered during the second quarter of last year. To help spur sales, Tesla has slashed prices on new models, but Musk said on the call that competitors have made things more difficult by offering substantial discounts on their EVs. Tesla is also continuing to ramp-up production on the Cybertruck and the refreshed Model 3 sedan.
Musk didn't reveal too much about future products, but he did say that the robotaxi and other models that were set to be revealed early next month will now be delayed until October 10. Musk said the setback is to "make some important changes that I think will improve the robotaxi, the main thing we're going to show." He also said that things are on track to introduce a "more affordable model" in the first half of next year. However, it's unclear exactly what model he's referring to. A report earlier this year claimed that Tesla had cancelled plans for its sub-$30K SUV, with resources reportedly shifting towards the autonomous robotaxi.
Musk said that he believe the biggest differentiator for Tesla is autonomy. "Regarding full self-driving and robotaxi, we've made a lot of progress with FSD in Q2, and with version 12.5 beginning rollout, we think customers will see many improvements in how full self-driving works," he said on the call. Musk also believes that the first unsupervised ride could possibly happen by the end of this year. But he did joke that he's been "overly optimistic in the past." Then he said the first unsupervised FSD ride will be "for sure next year."
When an investor asked about the status of the Tesla Roadster, Musk said that most of the engineering is done but they are still some upgrades they want to make. He said expect the Roadster to enter production next year. "It'll be something special."
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