Tesla Posts Earnings Loss But Claims Model 3 Production Will Start In July (bgr.com) 67
An anonymous Slashdot reader shares a report from BGR: Tesla on Wednesday released its earnings report (PDF) for the company's recent fourth quarter. When the dust settled, Tesla posted revenue of $2.28 billion and a loss of 69 cents per share. By way of contrast, Tesla during the same quarter a year-ago posted a loss of $0.87 per share on the back of $1.75 billion in revenue. Notably, Tesla notes that its cumulative 2016 revenue checked in at $7 billion, a 73% increase from 2015. As far as the Model 3 is concerned, Tesla's press release relays that the company is still on track to begin production in July ahead of volume production in September.
Tesla notes in its press release: "Our Model 3 program is on track to start limited vehicle production in July and to steadily ramp production to exceed 5,000 vehicles per week at some point in the fourth quarter and 10,000 vehicles per week at some point in 2018. To support accelerating vehicle deliveries and maintain our industry-leading customer satisfaction, we are expanding our retail, Supercharger, and service functions. Model 3 vehicle development, supply chain and manufacturing are on track to support volume deliveries in the second half of 2017. In early February, we began building Model 3 prototypes as part of our ongoing testing of the vehicle design and manufacturing processes. Initial crash test results have been positive, and all Model 3-related sourcing is on plan to support the start of production in July. Installation of Model 3 manufacturing equipment is underway in Fremont and at Gigafactory 1, where in January, we began production of battery cells for energy storage products, which have the same form-factor as the cells that will be used in Model 3."
Tesla notes in its press release: "Our Model 3 program is on track to start limited vehicle production in July and to steadily ramp production to exceed 5,000 vehicles per week at some point in the fourth quarter and 10,000 vehicles per week at some point in 2018. To support accelerating vehicle deliveries and maintain our industry-leading customer satisfaction, we are expanding our retail, Supercharger, and service functions. Model 3 vehicle development, supply chain and manufacturing are on track to support volume deliveries in the second half of 2017. In early February, we began building Model 3 prototypes as part of our ongoing testing of the vehicle design and manufacturing processes. Initial crash test results have been positive, and all Model 3-related sourcing is on plan to support the start of production in July. Installation of Model 3 manufacturing equipment is underway in Fremont and at Gigafactory 1, where in January, we began production of battery cells for energy storage products, which have the same form-factor as the cells that will be used in Model 3."
Apples for apples (Score:5, Insightful)
Why can't the article post $xx revenue and $$yy loss. It's much easier to read than adding in the less helpful EPS.
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You obviously have no understanding of how business tax deductions work. Companies can be generating huge profits and by some miracle of mathematics declare tax losses (the mathematics being the numbers surrounding campaign donations). Tax depreciation of capital assets is one of those vehicles of tax minimisation for some (the bulk of workers get zip). So before any claims of burning through money you have to look at EBITDA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] (from that you can tell how a company is really d
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Meaningless (Score:5, Insightful)
All this earnings losses doesn't mean anything to a expanding company like Tesla. Do we really want them to stall their growth just to be little bit profitable? They have the advantage with big car companies dragging their feet. They have to do everything they can to gain marketshare now before others catch up.
There was a big stink about Amazon during the late 90s and early 00s about how they are posting losses. Where are all those shortsighted investors now.
Staggering disinformation (Score:5, Interesting)
All this earnings losses doesn't mean anything to a expanding company like Tesla. Do we really want them to stall their growth just to be little bit profitable? They have the advantage with big car companies dragging their feet. They have to do everything they can to gain marketshare now before others catch up.
There was a big stink about Amazon during the late 90s and early 00s about how they are posting losses. Where are all those shortsighted investors now.
The amount of Tesla disinformation in the financial news is staggering.
I read an article three weeks ago that said that 38% of Tesla stock was shorted, with a due date a couple of weeks from then. I then read another mainstream financial media was reporting that Tesla was expected to hit zero by the middle of the summer, and you should sell your stock right now!
Sure enough, Tesla inked a deal to sell electric cars to the middle East [local10.com], and its stock jumped 10% on that news and has held relatively steady.
One financial news report suggests to sell your Tesla stock and take the profits and invest in Twitter. Of course, Twitter has yet to make a profit [cnn.com] and no *clear* way to do so, but hey... Tesla will be burning through cash and be bankrupt real soon now - take your profits out of Tesla and run!
I think there's a lot of "self interested" reporting going on. Most analysts want to bring Tesla down because a) they've bet heavily on the stock dropping, or b) have clients who would benefit from the stock dropping, or c) have clients heavily invested in oil and natural gas.
Tesla has been laying a firm foundation on which to build its future, and is posed to dominate a very big section of the economy. It shows every indication of being the next Microsoft or Apple.
If only those pesky financial analysts would stop and look at it objectively.
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Financial news is just a way to manipulate the market.
And... (Score:3)
10-K's don't lie. Just sayin!
And what do the ones from Tesla say?
Help me out. How should I, as a smart investor, interpret Tesla's most recent annual report?
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I don't know, Tesla currently has over 11 billion dollars in preorders (325,000 model 3 pre-orders x $34,000 adjusted list price), it seems like that's more solid than most companies' projections of future earnings.
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Pre-orders for a product that does not yet exist and for which they won't tell how many people have cancelled. I wouldn't base to much on that.
Like I said, it's at least more certain than most other companies' fanciful projections.
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$TSLA typically had a very large short interest. During the recent quarter that interest, while still not small, has dropped sharply, meaning shorts were capitulating and buying stock/options to cover their short pos
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Where are all those shortsighted investors now.
busy making dire predictions about tesla
Re:Meaningless (Score:5, Interesting)
The list of Tesla's enemies is long. It's very difficult to find a dispassionate analysis of their situation because you have several state governments, possibly the federal government (with it's anti-EPA EPA chief), dozens of state automobile dealership associations, the Big 3 automakers, practically the entire oil and gas industry, hydrogen fuel cell purveyors, wall street short sellers and generally a chunk of uninformed alt-right types -- all with vested interests in seeing it fail.
Then you have those who believe that the stock is already worth buying at practically any multiple, Musk can make no mistakes and builds golden space chariots.
The reality is they have a big set of tasks ahead of them, and they've made their share of mistakes along the way, but on the big items, they've proven themselves several times over. Long-term, I think they're in pretty good shape, assuming they can achieve volume manufacturing of the Model 3 (~5k cars per week) within the next 12 months.
At this point in its history, anyone offering unqualified strongly positive or negative sentiment regarding Tesla's position have vested interests in play or else are simply trolls not to be taken seriously.
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Its called free market capitalism for ya'll socialists out there.
IE, "real life capitalism" as opposed to the idealized invisible-hand, enlightened-consumer sort of capitalism you'll hear about in business schools.
I know where the money goes... (Score:1)
He's digging a hole to bury it next to SpaceX..
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He's boring a hole to bury it next to SpaceX..
FTFY
not surprised (Score:4, Interesting)
It has many nice features that other cars should catch up.
However, it also has tons of issues. As a car manufacturer and dealer, I feel that their service level is below the industry average. Any main stream car dealers have more professional on servicing its customer.
And, everything to this car is way more expensive than others. And body collision, even small will cost you $5K+ ~ $10K.
Musk spent too much time on other things. He needs more focus on this factory.
Re:not surprised (Score:4, Insightful)
And, everything to this car is way more expensive than others. And body collision, even small will cost you $5K+ ~ $10K.
This is a car that retails for $100 - $150K. Feel free to compare those repair costs to any other car in that same price range.
You're sure as shit not shopping at Walmart to do body work on a Porsche 911...
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As someone who evaluated an X vs the competition, the Tesla Model X is a broken car. Too much focus on glitchy, unworkable systems. Take the gas v. electric discussion out of the equation, the Model X just drives horribly for most people. Not to mention the amount of "bugs" (door opening issues, sun visor) I ran into just looking into the feasibility of owning one was very off putting.
If they stripped 90% of the crap out of the car and focused on the drivetrain it would be a different story. But it seem
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If they stripped 90% of the crap out of the car and focused on the drivetrain it would be a different story. But it seems that they have fallen into an "experience" trap, and have driven away a large segment of the population that could care less about an technology based everything.
I'd say a $100K price tag is what drove away a large segment of the population, which is why they're looking to sell a stripped-down $35K model. Given the insane popularity of the "gadget" market today, people love technology based everything.
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You picked one known lemon and generalised over the company. Then you claim an issue would be solved by CEO micro management.
Can you please list all the stock options you own? I think shorting the companies you invest in will be a sound financial decision.
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However, other experiences is not that good.
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Owning an early Model S and to an only slightly lesser extent a Model X is being a beta tester, to a much greater extent than other manufacturers who have more experience and existing platforms to build on.
The Model 3 won't come to the UK before next year anyway, so I'm looking at the end of 2018 to pick one up after they work all the bugs out.
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The Model 3 won't come to the UK before next year anyway, so I'm looking at the end of 2018 to pick one up after they work all the bugs out.
I'm doing the same thing. I'm actually thinking 2019-2020 to get a model 3, specifically because of what you said: Tesla seems to have a lot of problems building a car with good reliability. I tend to like sporty cars that are very reliable (Toyota MR2, Subaru STi). I anticipate a lot of problems with early Model 3s, but am hopeful that Tesla will fairly quickly figure out the problem areas and address them. I already have an electric car, but look forward to one with greater range. A fast 0-60 would be nic
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If you are going to spend that much then buying a used Model S through Tesla might not be a bad option.
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Yes, I had thought about that, but I like smaller cars (MR2, STi) and the Model S is a huge car. The Model 3 is just about the size I'm looking for... BMW 300 series size, not Lincoln Continental Ocean Liner ;-) And besides, I'm assuming Tesla will be charging that much for the Ludicrous version with maximum range...
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And, everything to this car is way more expensive than others. And body collision, even small will cost you $5K+ ~ $10K.
Well, no. You're just new. Honda made the first production car with body repair bills like that, the NSX. It was the first production vehicle with an all-aluminum unibody. I have an Audi A8, which is in exactly the same boat. It's from 1997. Get with the times, youngster.
After Hours (Score:3)
President doesn't affect individual businesses (Score:2)
But that is likely because Trump is pro-business instead of a anti-business Democrat.
It's because Tesla inked a deal to start selling cars in the middle east, along with the support charging infrastructure.
I'm good with blaming the president for things, but the president really has very little effect on any individual business, and in particular has little effect on a specific business in his first 30 days.
I think the same can be said about Obama. Anything he did was more of a global long-term effect if it was any effect at all. Taking health care as an example, I don't see Obamacare as hav
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...Shifting from stable except in specific ignition fuels to dangerous at all times lithium batteries that explode violently doesn't improve safety.
Death by Tesla battery is still very rare when looking at all accidents, battery safety designs are always improving, and the key shift here is EV is set out to replace the "dangerous at all times" gasoline powered cars, a fuel source that all the technology in the world cannot make less flammable or explosive.
No, I don't own a Tesla. Just stating the obvious.
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Shifting from stable except in specific ignition fuels to dangerous at all times lithium batteries that explode violently doesn't improve safety. Tesla was a failed business from the start.
As opposed to gasoline, which first catches fire, then explodes violently.
If Tesla was a failed business from the start, I presume you've shorted millions of dollars of TSLA. In which case, thank you for your money [google.com]. Moron.
Let me just decode this for you (Score:2)
Tesla notes in its press release: "Our Model 3 program is on track to start limited vehicle production in July and to steadily ramp production to exceed 5,000 vehicles per week at some point in the fourth quarter and 10,000 vehicles per week at some point in 2018.
"Limited vehicle production in July" means that they will make a few vehicles by hand and put them in the hands of customers. This is precisely what they did with all prior models.
"At some point in the fourth quarter" means in December, if then, since Tesla has a perfect record of being late.
"some point in 2018" means Q4 2018, again, if then.
This of course assumes that history will repeat itself, but it's been reliable so far.