Electric Vehicle Maker Tesla Reports Second Quarter Earnings Result, Revenue Misses Analysts’ Expectations

Shares of electric vehicle maker Tesla were up slightly after the Elon Musk-led company reported its second quarter after the bell on Wednesday.

For the second quarter, Tesla reported earnings per share of $2.27 (adjusted), surpassing the $1.81 that analysts had expected, according to Refinitiv. Revenue fell below the forecast of analysts. While they had forecasted revenue of $17.1 billion, according to Refinitiv, the electric maker reported revenue of $16.93 billion for the quarter.

For the quarter, automotive gross margin stood at 27.9 percent and is down from 32.9 percent recorded in the first quarter and 28.4 percent from the year-ago quarter. This decline, according to the company, was caused by inflation and increased competition for battery cells and other components used in making electric vehicles.

Out of the company’s total revenue of $16.93 billion, automotive revenues made up $14.6 billion, services and other revenue made up $1.47 billion while $866 million came from its energy segment.

According to its quarterly update to shareholders, in the second quarter, Tesla generated $344 million in automotive regulatory credits revenue. This is, however, a $10 million or almost 3 percent decline from the second quarter of 2021.

The company’s CEO Elon Musk shared on the earnings call on Wednesday that Tesla’s new factory just outside of Berlin produced over 1,000 cars per week in June adding that his expectation is that the company’s new factory situated in Austin, Texas beat the 1,000 per week production milestone in the coming months.

Tesla now has 709 store and service locations as well as 3,971 Supercharger locations housing a total of 36,165 Supercharger connections. This shows that in the second quarter, Tesla had a 19 percent growth in its store and service center locations YoY and a 34 percent growth in the number of its charging locations.

Elon Musk disclosed that the company disposed of 75 percent of its Bitcoin holdings while providing little to no detail about it. “As of the end of Q2, we have converted approximately 75% of our Bitcoin purchases into fiat currency. Conversions in Q2 added $936M of cash to our balance sheet.” Tesla had originally purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and even announced that it was going to start taking Bitcoin as a means of payment for its cars before rescinding the decision. During the second quarter, the company’s cash and cash equivalents grew by $847 million.

“The reason we sold a bunch of our Bitcoin holdings was that we were uncertain as to when the covid lockdowns in China would alleviate so it was important for us to maximize our cash position. This should be not taken as some verdict on Bitcoin,” Elon Musk said. However, Tesla’s CFO Zachary Kirkhorn, and CEO Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla had not sold any of its Dogecoin.

The company expects a 50 percent average annual growth in vehicle deliveries over a multi-year horizon. Like a handful of other companies, Tesla laid off some of its workers citing economic challenges.