Tesla’s on fast track to profitability
TESLA shares revved on news the electric car maker is on the road to being profitable this year, despite losing more money than analysts expected in the recently ended quarter.
Tesla shares raced up more than 9 per cent to $328.99 in after-market trades that followed the release of earnings figures and a call in which chief executive Elon Musk patiently fielded questions and expressed regret for rudely brushing off inquiries from some analysts a quarter earlier.
“I’d like to apologise for being impolite on the last call,” Mr Musk said to an analyst whose query he had dismissed.
“There really is no excuse for bad manners.”
Mr Musk said a lack of sleep and long work days had darkened his mood that day.
He had reacted defensively to questions from the news media and the financial community, abruptly shutting down questions from analysts during the company’s May conference call on earnings.
Tesla has faced multiple controversies in recent months, many of them stemming from comments made by the mercurial Mr Musk.
The Silicon Valley-based company reported a $US717.5 million loss – more than twice the $US336.4 million it lost in the same quarter a year ago. Revenues, meanwhile, jumped 43.5 per cent to $US4 billion.
The company also burned through less cash than many analysts expected.
Tesla said its ramp-up of production of the Model 3 had hit its stride. Output of the Model 3, the company’s first targeting the middle market, met a 5000 per week benchmark in June and repeated that pace “multiple times” in July.
Tesla executives said they had started to make a profit on cars, and predicted the “margin” would grow as they benefited from hard-won production-line efficiencies.
The electric car maker announced in June that it would cut 9 per cent of its staff in a bid to achieve profitability.
In its earnings statement, it projected it would reach profitability in the third quarter.