DETROIT- Tesla’s net profit in the second quarter fell 45% from a year ago as the company’s global growth electric vehicle Sales declined despite price cuts and low-interest financing.
The Austin, Texas, company said Tuesday it earned $1.48 billion from April through June, down from the $2.7 billion it earned in the same period in 2023. It was Tesla’s second straight quarterly profit decline.
Second-quarter revenue rose 2% to $25.5 billion, beating Wall Street estimates of $24.54 billion, according to FactSet. Excluding one-time items, Tesla earned 52 cents a share, below analysts’ expectations of 61 cents.
Earlier this month, Tesla said it sold 443,956 vehicles from April through June, a 4.8% decline of 466,140 sold in the same period a year agoWhile sales were better than the 436,000 analysts had expected, they were still a sign of weakening demand for the company’s aging product line.
In the first half of the year, Tesla sold about 831,000 vehicles globally, well below the more than 1.8 million the CEO sold for the full year. Elon Musk has predicted.
The company’s much-watched gross profit margin, the percentage of revenue the company gets to keep after deducting expenses, fell again to 18%. It was 18.2% a year ago and peaked at 29.1% in the first quarter of 2022.
Tesla said it posted record quarterly revenue “despite a difficult operating environment.” The company’s energy storage business generated just over $3 billion in revenue, double the same period last year.
Shares of Tesla fell 4% in trading after Tuesday’s closing bell. The stock had already fallen more than 40% earlier this year but has since recovered most of its losses.
Revenue from regulatory credits purchased by other automakers that cannot meet government requirements emissions Targets for the quarter were $890 million, double Tesla’s amount in most previous quarters.
The company reported $622 million in “restructuring and other” charges for the quarter, as it laid off more than 10% of its workforce.
Tesla said in a note to investors that it is between two major waves of growth, with the next coming from progress in autonomous vehicles and new models. But the company reiterated its warning that revenue growth “could be significantly lower than the growth achieved in 2023.”
The company said there are plans for new vehiclesincluding more affordable models, are on track to start production in the first half of next year. Tesla has hinted at a smaller model priced around $25,000. The models will be built using some aspects of current vehicles and others from next-generation underpinnings.
The company said average selling prices for its Models SX, 3 and Y all went down because of the price cuts and financing offers. It also said that the Cybertruck became the best-selling electric pickup in the U.S. in the quarter.