Austin, Texas — On Wednesday, July 19, Tesla Inc. reported record sales and earnings in the second quarter of 2023. The electric vehicle maker says it sold 466,000 EVs which is an increase of 83 percent over a year ago. It reported earnings of 91 cents per share beating what analysts expected of 82 cents per share.
Tesla reported revenue of $24.9 billion, up 47 percent from last year. It posted an operating profit of $2.4 billion which is down by 3 percent from a year ago. The EV maker says it earned $2.7 billion in net income, a 20 percent increase from last year.
“In quarter two, we achieved record vehicle production and deliveries, and record revenue of about $25 billion in a single quarter,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk. “And Model Y became the bestselling vehicle of any kind globally in Q1, surpassing the likes of Corolla and Golf. So, it was the number one vehicle of any kind, including vehicles that are sold at a far lower price. This is, I think, an incredible achievement by the Tesla team, and just a huge thank you to our customers for their support. And this came in spite of high interest rates and a lot of macro uncertainty.”
He says a major auto manufacturer is in talks to license Tesla’s full self driving (FSD) technology. However, he did not say which company it is. It was just a preview of things to come.
“We’re not trying to keep this to ourselves,” Musk added. “We’re more than happy to license it to others. And lastly, our new lithium refinery and cathode facility are progressing well.”
Tesla produced its first Cybertruck electric truck just a few days prior to the earnings report. The company made its promise and delivered.
Musk: “With regard to our Cybertruck, we continue to build our release candidates of the Cybertruck on our final production line in Austin. I’m actually here in Austin at the Gigafactory. This is the first truck that we’re aware of that will have four doors over a six foot bed and will fit into a 20-foot garage. So, it’s sort of biggest on the outside, but it’s even bigger on the inside. So it’s — I think that’s a — one of the elements of good design is it should feel bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside.”
The CEO says Tesla has added more Supercharger locations over the last quarter.
“Our global Supercharging network now stands at over 50,000 — roughly 50,000 connectors and over 5,000 locations. As I think a lot of people are aware, the Tesla Charging Standard, which we made open source and it’s now called the North American Charging Standard. We’re deeply honored that Ford, GM, Mercedes and many other OEMs have signed up to use our connector and gain access to our charging network. We strongly believe in helping other car companies to accelerate the EV revolution and just trying to do the right thing in general. So, that’s the goal there.”
An investor asked: How does Tesla decide when is it appropriate to reduce prices or add other sales incentives to increase demand?
Musk answered: “Buying a new car is a big decision for vast majority of people. So, any time there’s economic uncertainty, people generally pause on new car buying at least to see what happens. So when interest rates rise dramatically, we actually have to reduce the price of the car because the interest payments increase the price of the car. And this is — at least up until recently, it was, I believe, the sharpest interest rate rise in history. So, we had to do something about that. If somebody’s got a crystal ball for the global economy, I really appreciate it, if I could borrow that crystal ball.”
Tesla has just announced a new 84-month finance option for its new EVs. That will help lower monthly payments for its future customers.
There was no mention of the lower-cost Tesla model during the earnings call. We’ll keep waiting for news about that…