Elon Musk delivers a speech at Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas on June 13, 2024.
Source: Tesla Inc.
Tesla Second-quarter earnings will be released after the bell on Tuesday. The company's July 2 vehicle delivery report beat analysts' expectations but was still down from a year earlier.
Tuesday's earnings call will give investors a better idea of what Chief Executive Elon Musk and the company are doing to return to growth after reporting the biggest drop in first-quarter revenue since 2012.
Some institutional investors will focus on the health of Tesla's gross margins and operating expenses after the company implemented massive layoffs and offered price cuts and other incentives to boost electric vehicle sales.
Submitted by retail investors question Go ahead and get answers from the Say Technologies platform about the company’s plans to delay the launch of its “dedicated robot taxi” CyberCab and its overall progress in self-driving technology.
As of Monday, analysts expected Tesla to post adjusted earnings of 62 cents per share for the period ending June 30, 2024, on revenue of $24.77 billion, according to LSEG.
Submitted by retail investors question Through the Say Technologies platform in advance, we hope to get answers about the company's plans to delay the launch of the “dedicated robot taxi” CyberCab and the progress of its autonomous driving technology. They are also seeking details about Tesla's near-term priorities; the prospects for its fast-growing battery storage business; the status of a new factory it has promised to build in Monterrey, Mexico; and more.
Tesla shareholders also raised political concerns ahead of the call, given Musk's recent support for former President Trump and the CEO's emergence as a huge donor to the Republican Party during this presidential election cycle.
One asked: “Do you believe the Trump/Vance administration will support Tesla and electric vehicles? Based on your conversations, how confident are you?” Another asked: “What about Elon Musk? Can you support/fund a political party that denies climate change while Tesla’s mission statement is directly about combating climate change?”
Former President Trump said he would eliminate subsidies and other federal programs that specifically help buyers and producers of battery-electric vehicles but not other automakers.
Reuters reported last week that Musk's political and polarizing rhetoric “raised concerns about Tesla's brand, especially in liberal states like California, which accounts for 10% of the company's global deliveries.” According to data from the California New Car Dealers Association, Tesla registrations in California dropped to 52,211 vehicles in the second quarter.
Investors also submitted questions through Say Technologies about Tesla's progress in developing humanoid robots that the company plans to use in its factories.
Musk claimed at the annual shareholder meeting in June that Tesla's Optimus robot would be the catalyst that one day boosts the company's market value to an astronomical $25 trillion. Musk also called himself “morbidly optimistic” at that meeting.
humanoid robot
Tesla's “Optimus Prime” Tesla Bot humanoid robot is displayed at the 2023 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, China, on July 6, 2023.
Cost Photo | Noor Photo | Getty Images
Earlier on Monday, Musk said on social media Post on XTesla's Optimus humanoid robot will be “genuinely useful” and “produced in small quantities” for Tesla's internal use next year. He added that they were “hopefully” ready for higher volume production and could be used by “other companies in 2026.”
In April, Musk told Tesla shareholders during a first-quarter earnings call that Optimus would be “in limited production at the natural factory itself, completing useful tasks by the end of the year” and that Tesla “may be able to way to sell it to the outside world”: the end of next year. “
Tesla is a latecomer among technology companies developing humanoid robots. Its Optimus competitors include Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, Unitree, etc. Robotics companies such as Sanctuary, Apptronik, 1X, and Fourier are also working on dexterous manipulation hardware that mimics the human hand.
Musk has long promised investors that future Tesla products or services would be ready soon, even if they didn't exist outside of design concepts.
For example, the billionaire executive promoted the next-generation Roadster concept at an event in November 2017, and again in a series of tweets in June 2018. He said at the time that “the SpaceX option package for the new Tesla Roadster will include about 10 small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around the car.” He wrote at the time that the engines would increase speed and “may even allow the Tesla to fly ”. Six years later, the updated Roadster is still not in production, even though Tesla has taken $250,000 deposits from customers who want to buy one.
As another example, in 2015, Musk told shareholders that Tesla cars would achieve “fully autonomous driving” within three years. In 2016, Musk said that by the end of 2017, Tesla vehicles would be able to drive off-road without any human intervention. funds.
None of these things have happened yet.
Tesla recently made major changes to its driver assistance software, sold as Autopilot and FSD-S (Full Self-Driving Supervision) in the United States, which has won excitement and praise from many fans and owners.
Musk and other top executives are expected to discuss remaining challenges to delivering on these long-term self-driving promises during a conference call on Tuesday.