Tesla sold more cars in the last quarter than ever before – and still suffered the next drop in profits. The one from Elon Musk (54) guided Electric car-Manufacturer earned a good 1.37 billion dollars, which was 37 percent less than a year earlier.
The trigger for the sales record was the final spurt at the end of the US electric car subsidies at the end of September. Many interested parties wanted to quickly secure the tax credit of $7,500 that the US President Donald Trump (79) expired. At the same time, experts assume that there will be no early purchases from the current quarter.
However, Musk stated that autonomous driving and humanoid robots would be Tesla’s future. So far, Tesla has launched a robotaxi service for customers selected by the company in parts of the Texas city of Austin and the San Francisco region. In Austin, a guard rides in the passenger seat. In California, there is even a human behind the wheel because Tesla does not have a license to operate a driverless transportation service.
Robotaxis and robots
Musk said that by the end of the year, Tesla would be able to partially dispense with the accompanying person in the front passenger seat in Austin. The group also wants to launch its robotaxi service in eight to ten US cities by then. Meanwhile, the competitor Waymo already has several hundred completely driverless robotaxis on US roads and wants to expand internationally to London and Tokyo.
However, Musk claims that all Teslas currently leaving the factory are technically ready for autonomous driving. The group is now so convinced of its success that next year it will expand production with a specialized robotaxi model without a steering wheel or pedals.
Musk also insists that the company’s humanoid “Optimus” robots have the potential to become the “greatest product of all time.” Version 3, planned for next year, will move so smoothly that it will appear “like a human in a robot costume.” Self-driving cars and robots would bring about a “world without poverty” in which everyone has access to the best medical care. Because: “Optimus will be an incredible surgeon,” Musk announced. He hopes to start production of the robots by the end of next year.
Tesla shares are currently slipping
In the past, Musk often managed to wow investors with such visions of the future after mediocre quarterly figures. This time, Tesla shares slipped deeper into the red as he spoke. The price reached a temporary low with a loss of almost 5 percent after Musk’s statements about a “robot army” and how important it was that his top job at Tesla was secure.
“If we build this robot army – will I at least have a strong influence on this robot army?” asked the tech billionaire. Otherwise he wouldn’t be comfortable with the idea. The shares recently fell by almost 2 percent in after-hours trading.
Prospect of trillions in fortune
Musk was promoting the plan to give him the prospect of a new share package that could increase his Tesla stake to around 25 percent. Shareholders will vote on this on November 6th. Musk will receive the shares in several steps if certain targets in Tesla’s business and share price are reached over a decade. He would be on track to become a trillionaire. Most recently, according to estimates by the financial service Bloomberg, he had a fortune of $455 billion. Above all, the previous Tesla shares make Musk the richest person in the world.
The Tesla Board of Directors’ plan is not without controversy. ISS and Glass Lewis, two influential companies that make recommendations for shareholders, spoke out against the compensation plan. Musk therefore dismissed them as “corporate terrorists” and pointed out that some funds automatically followed the recommendations of ISS and Glass Lewis in their decisions.
Trump’s tariffs cost over $400 million
While Musk always paints rosy visions of the future, Tesla is currently facing serious problems. This includes growing competition and Trump’s import tariffs, which affect components as well as cars. In the last quarter, the tariffs cost Tesla more than $400 million, said CFO Vaibhav Taneja (47).
Meanwhile, quarterly sales rose by 12 percent year-on-year to just under $28.1 billion (around €24.2 billion). That exceeded analysts’ expectations.
The rush of customers when the US subsidies expired gave Tesla a sales record in the third quarter after months of falling sales. Deliveries rose by 7.4 percent year-on-year to 497,099 vehicles. In the first two quarters they had fallen by around 13 percent each.
Tesla is countering this with cheaper variants
The question now is what potential advance purchases mean for sales in the current quarter and beyond. Tesla is trying to counteract this with slightly cheaper, slimmed-down model variants.
“As a former high-flyer, Tesla has long since arrived in the ‘normal’ and tough car business,” commented German car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer (74) on the quarterly figures. He expects a decline in sales for the current quarter. Tesla has significant excess capacity. The group builds cars for Europe in Grünheide near Berlin.
More on the topic
According to market observers, Trump’s policy is also likely to dry up an important source of money for Tesla: the sale of CO₂ emission rights to other manufacturers. These proceeds had often helped Tesla through difficult times. In the last quarter, Tesla earned $419 million. However, that was 44 percent less than a year earlier. Trump had penalties for exceeding CO₂ limits abolished. The business with CO₂ emission rights is likely to come to a standstill.