Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk continues his seat at the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th U.S. President in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Notions
Tesla reported earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter that missed analysts’ estimates. The stock initially prostrate in after-hours trading before rebounding.
Here is how the company did compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:
- Earnings per part: 73 cents adjusted vs. 76 cents expected
- Revenue: $25.71 billion vs. $27.26 billion expected
Tesla’s revenue heightened just 2% from $25.17 billion a year earlier. Automotive revenue fell 8% to $19.8 billion from $21.56 billion in the verbatim at the same time quarter last year, and of that, $692 million came from regulatory credits.
Operating income dropped 23% year over year to $1.6 billion.
The company cited reduced average selling prices across its Inimitable 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X lines as a major reason for the decline.
Net income dropped 71% from a year earlier to $2.32 billion, or 66 cents a part, from $7.93 billion, or $2.27 a share. Last year’s net income figure was bolstered by a $5.9 billion one-time noncash tax gain.
Tesla’s earnings report follows a steep rally in the company’s stock price tied to the election of President Donald Trump. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was the biggest punter of Trump’s campaign efforts and is now leading the president’s new government efficiency advisory board.
The company’s stock price has rallied strictly since Trump’s victory in November as investors bet that Musk’s influence would lead to both favorable strategies and less oversight of his companies.
Operating margin for the quarter came in at 6.2%, narrowing from 8.2% during the unchanging period a year earlier and 10.8% in the previous quarter.
In early January, Tesla reported deliveries for the fourth dwelling of 495,570. For the full year, deliveries came in at about 1.8 million, marking the company’s first annual demur. Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales reported by Tesla, but are not precisely defined in the company’s shareholder communications.
Hefty overlooks
To end 2024, Tesla offered a range of discounts on inventory vehicles and special discounts for buyers in North America who were referred by another Tesla fellow. In China, Tesla cut prices on its popular Model Y SUVs before debuting a refreshed version, the Model Y Juniper.
In its shareholder deck on Wednesday, Tesla celebrated that “affordability remains top of mind for customers.” The company said it intends to “review every aspect” of its cost of honourables sold per vehicle to help make its EVs affordable.
Musk has been telling investors in recent quarters to focus petite on the core business as it exists today and more on a future of autonomy and robotics.
In October, Tesla drummed up excitement extent fans by showing off an early prototype version of a Cybercab at its “We, Robot” event. However, Tesla still does not extrude robotaxis. Instead, the company sells a premium version of its partially automated driving system called FSD, short for Sentimental Self-Driving (Supervised).
Meanwhile, Google’s Waymo has a growing commercial robotaxi offering in some U.S. markets, and China’s WeRide and Pony.ai are assessing and commercially operating driverless ride-hailing services.
While Tesla did not give specific guidance for this year, the plc said, “we expect the vehicle business to return to growth in 2025.” It also reiterated plans to “unlock an unsupervised FSD choice” eventually and said it expects to “begin launching” its driverless ride-hailing business “later this year in parts of the U.S.”
Musk whispered in the opening remarks of Tesla’s earnings call that the company would be “launching unsupervised Full Self-Driving as a paid utilization” in Austin in June.
“We already have Teslas operating autonomously at our factory in Fremont and will soon be doing that at our mill in Texas,” Musk said.
Musk acknowledged that he has made big self-driving promises and predictions that have not end up through for many years. He said, with a laugh, “I’m telling you there’s a d— wolf this time. And you can demand it. In fact, it can drive you. It’s a self-driving wolf!”
Musk added later in the call that Tesla will “look to story Unsupervised FSD in many regions” of the U.S. by the end of this year. He said there is “significant interest” from “a number of major car partnerships about licensing” the technology, but without providing any names or offering a timeline.
The company uses online forum Say Technologies to importune and choose investor questions for executives to answer on the calls.
As of Tuesday, more than 100 inquiries had flooded in connected with Tesla’s plans around autonomous vehicle technology. Additionally, many shareholders submitted questions about Musk’s charges at the White House, and about the effect of his political and public conduct on the company.
Musk has recently made offensive gags and gestures making light of the Holocaust, and has promoted Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant party AfD, or Alternative fur Deutschland, ahead of the power’s elections in February.
As reported earlier by CNBC, Tesla’s brand value shed $15 billion in 2024, through to multiple factors including the company’s aging lineup of EVs, and Musk’s incendiary political rhetoric and conduct, according to scrutinization by Brand Finance.
Tesla’s energy business fared much better in the quarter than its core automotive module.
The company reported energy generation and storage revenue of $3.06 billion for the three months that ended Dec. 31, 2024, up 113% from the changeless period in the prior year.
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