Tesla’s net profits fell 24% in the first quarter of the year, and were reduced to 2,513 million dollars, because of the discounts that the maker of luxury electric cars has been offering to stimulate demand.
Tesla said this Wednesday that from January to March of this year its revenues amounted to 23.329 million dollars, 24% more than a year ago.
But adjusted gross operating profit (Ebitda) fell 15%, from $5.023 million in the first quarter of 2022 to $4.627 million in the same period this year.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk stressed during a conference call with analysts after the results were released that “the current macroeconomic environment remains uncertain,” which is causing demand to fall.
Subsequently, Musk said that he estimates that the economic uncertainty will continue for around 12 months, “and if there is no big geopolitical event the situation will be better in the spring of next year.”
In the first three months of 2023, Tesla produced 440,808 vehicles (19,437 Model S and Model X; and 421,371 Model 3 and Model Y). During that period he delivered 422,875 vehicles.
Tesla justified in a statement that its short-term pricing strategy takes into account the long-term profitability of the company’s vehicles and that it expects prices to continue “evolving, up or down, depending on a number of factors.” .
“Although in the first quarter we have implemented price reductions on many vehicle models in all regions, our operating margins were reduced at a manageable pace. We look forward to future cost reductions for our vehicles,” the company added.
Operating margin fell from 19.2% a year ago to 11.4% in the first quarter of 2023.
Musk wanted to highlight that Tesla’s margin “continues to be among the best” in the auto industry, adding that the company’s current policy is geared toward achieving high volume sales rather than “lower volumes and higher margin.”
In addition, the company now has about 22.402 million dollars in cashequivalents and investments.
The company also repeated that the plan for the manufacture of the Cybertruck pickup truck, one of Tesla’s most anticipated products that is years behind schedule, is on schedule and that it already has Alpha (pre-production) units of the model.
Musk said he expects to deliver the first units of the Cybertruck in the third quarter of the year.
Musk also revealed that internally, the generic name for Tesla’s next generation of vehicles is Robotaxi. The financial results for the first quarter indicate that the company had 19,963 million dollars in income from its automotive activities, 1,529 million dollars from its energy generation and storage activity, and 1,837 million dollars from services and other items.
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