In Q3, Tesla encountered rising transportation expenses, “raw material cost inflation,” component shortages, and a stronger currency, all of which reduced its quarterly revenue ($21.45 billion vs. $21.96 billion projected). Nonetheless, the EV carmaker achieved production records at each of its plants. Tesla constructed 365,923 cars in Q3 and delivered just 343,830, according to the company’s quarterly production report released at the beginning of the month.
This quarter, revenue from automobile sales reached $18.69 billion, a 55 percent rise year on year, helping the firm regain some momentum lost during the weaker second quarter. According to CNBC, the value of Tesla shares has declined more than 17 percent since the publishing of that story and has lost more than 5 percent since the closing of the market on Wednesday, when Tesla’s results were disclosed. Andrej Karpathy, Tesla’s Director of AI, also left the firm in Q3 after a half-decade leading the company’s ADAS research.
“Despite these recent losses, Tesla’s earnings have more than doubled in the last year to $3.29 billion, and it looks like we’ll have an awesome end of the year,” CEO Elon Musk stated on the investor call. “We have tremendous demand for Q4 and anticipate selling every vehicle we produce.”
Musk also offered an update on the full release of the Full Self-Driving beta. During the call, Musk said, “We aim to provide the entire self-driving software to anybody who wants the package before the end of this year.”
“It won’t have [NHTSA] regulatory clearance at that time, but with the automobile, you’ll be able to drive from your house to work, your friend’s house, or the grocery store without touching the wheel.”
“We’re not claiming we’re ready to drive without anybody,” he added.
“It’s simply that you won’t have to touch the car controls very much.”
Tesla has set a goal of increasing car sales by 50% each year over the next five years. Tesla delivered 936,000 cars in 2021 and has delivered 908,573 units so far in 2022. According to Autoblog, in order to fulfill the 50 percent growth target, the business will need to sell nearly 1.4 million cars this year, with 490,000 of them arriving in Q4. Tesla also reaffirmed its intention to begin Semi deliveries in December. “The plants are functioning at full capacity, and we’re delivering every vehicle we build while maintaining great operating profits,” Musk stated.
These developments come as Musk’s proposed $44 billion acquisition of Twitter makes its way through the courts, which may require the Tesla CEO to sell more of his company’s stock to completely fund the transaction. “I’m enthusiastic about the Twitter issue because, obviously, I know that product really well, and it’s an asset that has kind of languished for a long time and has amazing potential,” Musk added.
