Tesla narrowly beat Wall Street expectations in the second quarter of 2023, marking a solid start to the year as the electric carmaker produced a record number of vehicles.
Revenue for the quarter topped $24.97bn compared to analyst predictions of $24.7 bn.
The report comes after Tesla slashed costs for its most popular vehicle models and drove a major increase in sales. Earnings were $0.91 a share compared with estimates of $0.79. Tesla’s gross margin was at 18.2%, compared with expectations of 17.5%.
Tesla produced 460,211 Model 3 compact cars and Model Y sport-utility vehicles – its mass-market models – compared with 345,988 in the same quarter last year and 19,489 deliveries of its Model S and Model X premium vehicles, compared with 16,411 at the same time last year.
Tesla shares rose marginally in after hours trading following the promising report. Musk and other Tesla leadership will address investors on a call after earnings are posted. Shareholders have previously expressed concern that Musk, who also owns SpaceX, Neuralink and Twitter, is stretched too thin in his leadership role.
In pre-submitted questions for the call, it was evident shareholders were hoping for updates from Tesla on its proposed Cybertruck, a model originally announced by Musk in 2019 that has yet to be formally introduced to the Tesla lineup.
In the quarterly report, Tesla stated that the Cybertruck is in “tooling” phase, as the company works on equipment installation. It said the model is on track for initial deliveries in 2023.
More details soon …