Industry Sales Results
Industry Sales Results

Tesla Q2 earnings: $717.5 million loss, Model 3 production expected to ramp next quarter

The talk around Tesla is looking positive, but profit remains elusive for Elon Musk's electric vehicle manufacturer.


Tesla has released its second-quarter earnings for 2018, revealing a US$717.5 million ($969 million) loss, but there's a bit to suggest things are looking up in Silicon Valley.

That loss is close to double the $336.4 million ($454.4 million) it lost during the first quarter of 2018, although total revenue rose from US$2.79 to US$4.0 billion. Tesla says it built 53,339 cars in the second quarter, of which 18,449 were Model 3s.

The period ended with US$2.78 billion in cash, after the company spent $609.8 million in capital expenses during the quarter.

The second quarter was significant for Tesla in a few key ways. For one, the company finally met its goal of building 5000 Model 3s and 2000 Model S and Xs in a week.

"A total vehicle output of 7,000 vehicles per week, or 350,000 per year, should enable Tesla to become sustainably profitable for the first time in our history," Tesla said, "and we expect to grow our production rate further in Q3."

It now has its sights set on 6000 Model 3s per week, with the goal of topping 10,000 at some stage in 2019. During the third quarter, the company is gunning for 50,000 Model 3s.

"We believe that the majority of Tesla’s production lines will be ready to produce at this rate by end of this year, but we will still have to increase capacity in certain places and we will need our suppliers to meet this as well," Tesla said in its investor communications. "As a result, we expect to hit this rate sometime next year."

The improved production capacity is, according to Tesla, down to the removal of "bottlenecks across various stages of the Model 3 manufacturing process".

Perhaps in an attempt to allay concerns about the production line it's running in a tent, the investor report also went to great lengths to highlight quality.

"No production target is more important than sustained quality, which is why every vehicle we produce goes through a thorough set of measurements and tests before it reaches the customer," it said.

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