Tesla CEO Elon Musk and design chief Franz von Holzhausen revealed their latest Cybertruck design during the grand opening of a factory in Austin, Texas.
tesla
Stocks of electric car makers tesla Shares fell more than 4% in premarket trading on Thursday after investors were disappointed by initially positive results from Chief Executive Elon Musk and other executives who made inaccurate comments about the company’s latest model, the Cybertruck, and planned self-driving cars.
Musk also warned that while the company would “continue to set a target of 1.8 million vehicle deliveries this year,” Tesla also expects “production to be slightly down in the third quarter as we’ve shut down over the summer,” which the CEO called “a lot of factory upgrades.”
Analysts also highlighted concerns about “headwinds” to Tesla’s profit margins, which at 9.6% were the lowest in at least the past five quarters.
“We believe margins could continue to face headwinds in the medium term if Tesla lowers prices to support higher volumes,” Goldman Sachs’ Mark Delaney said in a Wednesday note.
Tesla shares have recovered slightly from overnight lows, but remain subdued from Wednesday’s closing price of $291.26. Tesla’s top and bottom lines were strong, with revenue of $24.93 billion and adjusted earnings per share of 91 cents for the quarter ended June 30, 2023.
Earlier this month, Tesla reported total second-quarter vehicle deliveries of 466,140 vehicles, the closest sales figure Tesla has ever reported. However, Musk did not provide the specific delivery volume of the new Cybertruck, but said in the company’s earnings conference call that Cybertruck will be “in mass production next year” and the number of deliveries in 2023 is unknown.
In its earnings release, the company said the Cybertruck “factory tool” is on track, but the company is only producing a “release candidate” version.
— CNBC’s Lora Kolodny and Michael Bloom contributed to this report.