Cnn
–
Things are undoubtedly bad in Tesla. Its sales decrease. His profits plunge, as is the course of his action. There is regularly demonstrations Apart from its exhibition halls. Cybertruck is a fiasco. And in one way or another, it’s actually much worse than that.
THE 71% drop in net profit He has just been reported perhaps overshadowed by the announcement of the CEO Elon Musk which he would receive from his controversial functions to the Ministry of Government Effectiveness (DOGE). But this drop is only an indication of serious financial disease in the manufacturer of electric vehicles, the problems caused by fall in sales for the first time in its history and drop in prices For electric vehicles.
The problem of Tesla’s results is its flight line at the run. A more in -depth examination of his first quarter report shows that he is now losing money on what should be his ostensible reason for existence – the sale of cars.
He could only publish a profit of $ 409 million During the quarter thanks to the sale of $ 595 million in regulatory credits to other car manufacturers.
But If the Trump administration obtains its Way, the company can also embrace these regulatory credits by keeping it in the dark goodbye.
It also faces a possible cost increase due to the prices that Trump administration weighs on imported automotive parts, which, according to Musk, could be significant, although less than some competitors.
Sales decrease in part due to the increase in competition from electric vehicle offers from other car manufacturers, in particular in China. Tesla sales decrease in Europe and China, even though the GIV’s overall sales are increasing in these key markets. It is about to lose its longtime title of the largest electric vehicle seller in the world in the Chinese automaker byd.
But Tesla is also injured by Musk’s political activities, from the management of the effort to radically reduce the federal government to support the far -right parties around the world, such as Germany AFD. Even some of his fans at Wall Street believe that the brand’s damage could lastdespite Musk’s assertion that he intends to step back from Doge.
Musk rejects the idea that the company is in serious financial distress.
“We have gone through many crises over the years and we have been … in reality downwards-at least, perhaps a dozen times,” he told Investors on Tuesday at the call conference. “It is not one of those moments. We are not on the edge in tatters of death, not even close. There are challenges and I expect this year to probably be unexpected bumps this year, but I remain extremely optimistic about the future of the company. ”
But what was not discussed during the call is the fact that the Trump administration wants Get rid of federal issues which promote car manufacturers who sell electric vehicles.
He also wants to put an end to the right of California and eight other states to require stricter emission regulations than federal standards that would prohibit the sale of petrol vehicles by 2035. Without difficult issues at the federal level and the State, there would be no sales of regulatory credit.
The sale of these federal and state credits has been lucrative enough for Tesla, generating $ 8.4 billion in income since the beginning of 2021, money that has mainly gone directly to its results.
For a large part of its history, Tesla depended on the sales of these credits because it was lose money on its solar energy cars and products. But since the second quarter of 2021, he had has been profitable each quarter Even without credit sales-until the last quarter, that is to say.
A key product margin is also narrowed. In the first quarter, this measure, the gross automotive profit margin, excludes not only regulatory credit sales but also many other expenses. The margin was 12.5% in the last quarter, against a summit of 30% in the first quarter of 2022.
The last time Tesla had a beneficiary margin that Low was at the beginning of 2012, according to research by Morgan Stanley, at the time when the company only started and sold only 5,600 cars per year, or almost what it sold every day, on average, last year.
The profit margin of 30% in 2022 had made it the most profitable car manufacturer in the country, even if it still sold a fraction of the vehicles sold by General Motors, Ford or Stellantis.
Between the combination of healthy profits and the Tesla sales growth between 37% and 87% per year, the title went directly – as Musk loves to say – the moon. Who made it most precious manufacturer On the planet from afar, and muscle the richest person.
But sales struck the opposite last year, marking his First annual decline in its history. Part of this was motivated by the increase in competition from electric vehicle offers from other car manufacturers, in particular in China, and partly by reaction of certain buyers deactivated by the increasingly conservative and controversial Musk political positions.
Even some of these Tesla actions are still optimistic Sustainable brand damageBut they believe that the company will benefit from the introduction of “robotaxis” which will provide driver -free rides to people using a new Tesla breeding service, according to Tesla, is about to make its debut in Austin, Texas.
The Ministry of Transport seemed to give Tesla’s autonomous driving efforts on Thursday when it announced an “automated vehicle framework”, which includes “the abolition of unnecessary regulatory obstacles” and allowing commercial deployment of automated vehicles. Investors have taken this because another sign from the Trump administration taking measures to help Tesla when its shares increased 10% on Friday. But the framework does not guarantee that its independent efforts promised for a long time will succeed.
The promise – and the problems – of the robotaxy
Musk claims that the service and introduction of humanoid robots which, according to him, will be at work in Tesla plants later this year that the next five most precious companies in the world combined.
Fans of the action always believe in the future that Musk predicts, even if some are not as optimistic about the chronology.
Gene Munster, Director Partner at Deepwater Asset Management, attributes the beneficiary margins that are partially thinking in part to reducing sales and in part to an increase of $ 250 million in research and development.
“It’s a ugly year, but they have a sort of configuration for what should be improvements next year,” he said. He agrees with Musk’s vision that Tesla is well placed to take advantage of the capture of a large part of the carpooling market.
But GM recently Having dropped his own Robotaxi offer After concluding “the time and the considerable resources that would be necessary to evolve the company, as well as an increasingly competitive Robotaxi market” has not argued a profitability analysis. Ford He also considerably withdrew from his own efforts to develop autonomous vehicles after concluding that he would not be profitable as soon as possible.
“Profitable and entirely autonomous vehicles on a large scale are far away,” said Ford Jim Farley CEO.
And Musk promises that Tesla robotaxis has been about a year for at least six years Now, and even he admits that the company has not lived up to the previous predictions on the company’s calendar for its “self-self-self-” or FSD capacities.
“I am the boy who cried the FSD,” he said during an appeal with investors in July 2023. And even when he deploys his Latest plans for robotaxy In October, he admitted: “I tend to be a little optimistic with deadlines.”