NEW YORK The fallout from Elon Musks plunge into politics a year ago is still hammering his Tesla business as both sales and profits dropped sharply again in the latest quarter.
The car company that has faced boycotts for months said Wednesday that revenue dropped 12% and profits slumped 16% in the three months through June as buyers continued to stay away.
The perception of Elon Musk, its chief executive, has rubbed the sheen right out of what once was a darling and soaring automotive brand, wrote Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee in an email. Tesla is a toxic brand that is inseparable from its leader.
Quarterly profits at the electric vehicle, battery and robotics company fell to $1.17 billion, or 33 cents a share, from $1.4 billion, or 40 cents a share. That was the third quarter in a row that profit dropped. On an adjusted basis, the company said it earned 40 cents a share, matching Wall Street estimates.
Revenue fell from $25.5 billion to $22.5 billion in the April through June period, slightly above Wall Streets forecast.
Tesla shares fell 3% in after-hours trading.
Musk spent the companys earnings conference call talking less about car sales and more about robotaxis, automated driving software and robotics, which he says is the future of the company. But those businesses have yet to take off, and the gap between promise and profit was apparent in the second quarter.
It appears managements focus will now shift to robotaxis and away from deliveries growth, said Morningstar analyst Seth Goldstein, referring to car sales.
A big challenge is that potential buyers not just in the U.S. but Europe are still balking at buying Teslas. Musk alienated many in the market for cars in Great Britain, France, Germany and elsewhere by embracing far-right politicians there. And rival electric vehicle makers such as Chinas BYD and Germans Volkswagen have pounced on the weakness, stealing market share.
Tesla began a rollout in June of its paid robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, and hopes to introduce the driverless cabs in several other cities soon. Musk has said he expects to have hundreds of thousands of the cabs on U.S. roads by the end of next year.
In the post-earnings call, Musk said the service will be available to probably half of the population of the U.S. by the end of the year thats at least our goal, subject to regulatory approvals.
He added, We are being very cautious. We dont want to take any chances.
The test run in Austin has mostly gone off without a hitch, though there have been a few alarming incidents, such as when a robotaxi went down a lane meant for opposing traffic.
With autonomous taxis, though, the billionaire who upended the space race and EV manufacturing faces tough competition. The dominant provider now, Waymo, is already in several cities and recently logged its ten-millionth paid trip.
Meanwhile, other threats loom. The new federal budget just passed by Congress eliminates a credit worth as much as $7,500 for buying an electric car. It also wipes out penalties for car makers exceeding carbon emission standards. That threatens Teslas business of selling its carbon credits to traditional car companies that regularly fall short of those standards.
Tesla generated $439 million from credit sales, down sharply from $890 million a year ago.
Were in this weird transition period where well lose a lot of incentives in the U.S., Musk said, predicting several rough quarters ahead. He added, though, Once you get to autonomy at scale in the second half of next year, certainly by the end of next year, I would be surprised if Teslas economics are not very compelling.
One way for Tesla to boost sales while waiting for that future: A cheaper model. The company now is planning to introduce that to the market in the last three months of the year. Tesla had previously said that was going to happen by June this year.
Musk also said he expected regulatory approval to introduce its so-called Full Self-Driving software in some parts of Europe by the end of the year. Musk had previously expected that to happen by March of this year. The feature, which is available in the U.S., is a misnomer because it is only a driver-assistance feature.
In the robot business, Musk said he expects explosive growth as Tesla ramps up production of its humanoid Optimus helpers to 100,000 a month in five years.
Well go from a world where robots are rare to where theyre so common that you dont even look up, he said.
Asked about whether he would want more than his current 13% stake in Tesla to keep control, Musk said he did want more but not too much.
I think my control over Tesla should be enough to ensure that it goes in a good direction, he said, but not so much control that I cant be thrown out if I go crazy.
Gross margins for the quarter, a measure of earnings for each dollar of revenue, fell to 17.2% from 18% a year earlier.
A highlight from the quarter was from something far removed from cars and robots: the companys investment in bitcoin. That bet generated a $284 million paper gain, compared with a loss the previous quarter.
纽约——埃隆·马斯克一年前涉足政坛引发的余波仍在冲击其特斯拉业务，最新季度该公司销量与利润再度大幅下滑。
这家连续数月遭遇抵制的汽车公司周三表示，由于消费者持续回避购买，截至6月的三个月内其营收下降12%，利润骤减16%。
弗雷斯特研究公司分析师迪潘詹·查特吉在一封电子邮件中写道，埃隆·马斯克作为特斯拉首席执行官的形象，已经让这个曾经备受喜爱且飞速发展的汽车品牌黯然失色。特斯拉如今已成为一个与其领导者密不可分的负面品牌。
这家电动汽车、电池和机器人公司的季度利润从14亿美元（合每股40美分）降至11.7亿美元（合每股33美分），标志着利润连续第三个季度下滑。公司表示，经调整后每股收益为40美分，与华尔街预期持平。
在四月至六月期间，公司营收从255亿美元下降至225亿美元，略高于华尔街的预期。
特斯拉股价在盘后交易中下跌3%。
马斯克在公司的财报电话会议上并未过多讨论汽车销售，而是重点谈及机器人出租车、自动驾驶软件和机器人技术，并称这些才是公司的未来。然而，这些业务尚未起飞，第二季度承诺与盈利之间的差距已显而易见。
晨星分析师塞斯·戈德斯坦（Seth Goldstein）在谈及汽车销售时表示：“显然，管理层的关注点将从交付量增长转向自动驾驶出租车（robotaxi）业务。”
当前面临的一大挑战是，不仅美国，欧洲的潜在买家也对购买特斯拉汽车持观望态度。马斯克因支持英国、法国、德国等地的极右翼政客，疏远了这些国家汽车市场的众多消费者。而中国比亚迪、德国大众等竞争对手则趁机抓住这一弱点，抢占了市场份额。
特斯拉于6月在得克萨斯州奥斯汀市推出付费自动驾驶出租车服务，并计划很快在其他多个城市推广无人驾驶出租车。埃隆·马斯克表示，预计到明年年底，美国道路上将部署数十万辆此类出租车。
在财报电话会议上，埃隆·马斯克表示，这项服务预计将在年底前覆盖美国约半数人口——这至少是我们的目标，但需获得监管批准。
他补充道：“我们非常谨慎，不想冒任何风险。”
奥斯汀的测试运行总体上进展顺利，但也发生了几起令人担忧的事件，例如一辆自动驾驶出租车驶入了反向车道。
然而在自动驾驶出租车领域，这位颠覆太空竞赛和电动汽车制造业的亿万富翁正面临激烈竞争。目前占据主导地位的Waymo已进驻多个城市，其付费订单量近期更突破1000万次大关。
与此同时，其他威胁也日益显现。美国国会刚刚通过的新联邦预算案取消了高达7500美元的电动汽车购置抵税优惠，同时废除了对汽车制造商碳排放超标的处罚措施。这将危及特斯拉向长期不达标的传统车企出售"碳积分"的核心业务。
特斯拉通过碳排放积分销售获得4.39亿美元收入，较上年同期的8.9亿美元大幅下降。
马斯克表示："我们正处于一个奇怪的过渡期，在美国将失去大量激励政策。"他预测未来几个季度会相当艰难。但他补充道："一旦明年下半年实现大规模自动驾驶，最迟到明年年底，如果特斯拉的经济效益还不具有足够吸引力，那我会感到非常意外。"
在等待未来愿景实现的同时，特斯拉提振销量的一个方法是推出更便宜的车型。该公司目前计划在今年最后三个月将这款车型推向市场。特斯拉此前曾表示，这款车型将于今年6月面市。
马斯克还表示，他预计监管机构将在年底前批准在欧洲部分地区推出其所谓的“全自动驾驶”软件。此前，马斯克曾预计这一目标将在今年三月实现。该功能目前在美国可用，但名称存在误导性，因为它实际上仅是一种驾驶辅助功能。
马斯克表示，在机器人业务领域，随着特斯拉计划在五年内将其人形机器人Optimus助手的月产量提升至10万台，他预计该行业将迎来爆发式增长。
他说：“我们将从一个机器人罕见的世界，进入一个机器人如此普遍以至于你都不会抬头多看一眼的世界。”
当被问及是否需要增持特斯拉股份以维持控制权（目前持股13%）时，埃隆·马斯克表示确实希望增加持股比例，但不会过多。
“我认为对特斯拉的控制权应足以确保其朝着正确方向发展，”他表示，“但也不能过度掌控，以免在我失去理智时无法被罢免。”
本季度毛利率（即每美元收入对应的盈利指标）从去年同期的18%降至17.2%。
本季度的一大亮点与汽车和机器人毫无关联：该公司对比特币的投资。这笔押注带来了2.84亿美元的账面收益，而上一季度则录得亏损。
全部评论 （0）