Tesla faces higher transportation costs, “inflated raw material costs,” persistent parts shortages and a stronger dollar in the third quarter, all of which eroded its quarterly revenue ($21.45 billion vs. $21.96 billion expected) ). However, the electric car maker still managed to set production records at each of its factories. According to the company’s quarterly production report released earlier this month, Tesla produced 365,923 vehicles in the third quarter and delivered 343,830.
Auto sales revenue reached $18.69 billion in the last quarter, up 55% year over year, helping the company regain some of the momentum it lost during the slowdown in the second quarter. Tesla stock has lost more than 17% in value since the report, and CNBC reported that it has fallen more than 5% since Tesla’s earnings were released at the close on Wednesday . During the third quarter, Andrej Karpathy, Tesla’s director of artificial intelligence, left the company after five years leading the company’s ADAS development efforts.
Despite these recent losses, Tesla’s profits did double to $3.29 billion over the past year, “It looks like we’re going to have an epic year-end,” CEO Elon Musk said on an investor call. “Our demand for the fourth quarter is very good, and we want to sell every vehicle we build for this.”
Musk also provided an update on the availability of a wide version of the fully autonomous beta version. “We hope to release the full self-driving software to anyone who orders the package by the end of the year,” Musk said on the conference call. “It wouldn’t have [NHTSA] regulatory approval at the time, but with this one car, you can take you from home to your work place, to a friend’s house, to the grocery store without touching the steering wheel.”
“We’re not saying it’s ready for no one behind the wheel,” he clarified. “It’s just that you hardly ever need to touch the vehicle controls.”
Tesla aims to achieve a 50% annual increase in vehicle sales over the next few years. In 2021, Tesla delivered about 936,000 vehicles, and has delivered 908,573 vehicles so far in 2022. So to achieve the 50% growth target, the company needs to sell about 1.4 million vehicles in total this year, as Autoblog notes, 490,000 of which were posted in the fourth quarter. Tesla also recommitted to delivering its Semis starting in December. “The factory is running at full speed, we’re delivering every vehicle we make, and maintaining strong operating margins,” Musk declared.
These developments come amid Musk’s possible $44 billion takeover of Twitter through the courts, which could require the Tesla CEO to sell more of his stake in the car company, to fully fund the deal. “I’m excited about what’s going on with Twitter because obviously I know the product very well, and it’s an asset that’s been in decline for a long time and has incredible potential,” Musk said.
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