Tesla posts record Q1 loss as cash burn accelerates

Tesla posted a record US$709.6 million net loss in the first quarter and burned through US$745.3 million in cash while struggling to crank out large numbers of its Model 3 mass-market electric car.

The loss and cash burn announced Wednesday raised questions about Tesla’s future and whether it will be able to pay all of its bills by early next year without more borrowing or another round of stock sales.

Tesla said its net loss amounted to US$4.19 per share. Excluding onetime expenses such as stock-based compensation, it lost US$3.35 per share. Revenue grew by 26 per cent from a year ago to US$3.4 billion.

The giant loss in a critical quarter for the 15-year-old company fell short of Wall Street estimates. Analysts polled by FactSet expected an adjusted loss of US$3.54 per share. Revenue, however, exceeded estimates of US$3.28 billion.

In April, Tesla said it wouldn’t need to return to markets for more capital because it expected to generate cash from sales of the Model 3. But it has had trouble getting them out the door to several hundred thousand people who put down US$1,000 deposits to order one.

Moody ’s Investor Service downgraded Tesla’s debt into junk territory back in March, warning at the time that Tesla didn’t have cash to cover US$3.7 billion for normal operations, capital expenses and debt that come due early next year. At the end of last year the company had a total of US$9.5 billion in long-term debt.

“The negative outlook reflects the likelihood that Tesla will have to undertake a large, near-term capital raise in order to refund maturing obligations and avoid a liquidity shortfall,” Moody ’s wrote in a note to investors.

Tesla has had only two profitable quarters in its nearly eight years as a public company.

The key to raising cash to cover expenses is production of the Model 3 mass-market electric car, which starts at US$35,000 but can easily top US$50,000 with options. Production problems have been so bad that CEO Elon Musk has tweeted he’s sleeping at the plant and that automation is overrated and more humans are needed to build the cars.

The plant has wildly missed Musk’s forecasts. The Fremont, Calif., factory was shut down for four or five days last month to clear production bottlenecks, Tesla said.