Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at an event in Hawthorne, California, April 30, 2015.
Patrick T. Fallon | Reuters
Tesla reported third-quarter earnings after the bell. Shares fell about 3% after hours after the results.
Here are the results.
- Earnings: $1.05 vs 99 cents per share (adjusted) is expected, based on analysts polled by Refinitiv
- Income: $21.45 billion vs. $21.96 billion expected, per Refinitiv.
Tesla’s (GAAP) net income for the third quarter of 2022 came in at $3.33 billion, with automotive gross margins holding steady at 27.9%, right where it stood in the second quarter of 2022.
During the same period last year, Tesla reported $1.62 billion in revenue.
Automotive revenue totaled $18.69 billion, a 55% increase from a year ago. Cost of revenue for Tesla’s core automotive business rose to $13.48 billion in the quarter, from $10.52 billion in the second quarter, in line with increased auto sales. Tesla’s auto regulatory credits accounted for 1.5% of auto revenue at $286 million for the quarter.
Tesla reiterated earlier guidance at its shareholder meeting on Wednesday, saying: “Over a multi-year horizon, we expect to achieve 50% annual growth in vehicle deliveries.”
The company reiterated that deliveries of its semi-electric heavy-duty truck will begin in December, and confirmed that it is manufacturing the Semi in Nevada. The product was first announced in December 2017. It did not provide a specific timeline for the start of production of its Cybertruck, saying only that it would be produced in Texas after Model Y production ramps up there.
The company previously reported that its deliveries for the quarter ending September 30 reached 343,000 and vehicle production reached 365,000. Deliveries are the closest approximation of Tesla’s reported sales. Shares are down more than 17% since the Oct. 2 weekend report.
While vehicle production and deliveries have increased, service has not kept pace and has been a sore point for many Tesla owners.
CEO Elon Musk said, in July, that he was, “excited to work with Tesla Service to enable same-hour service as often as possible! Applying Formula 1 pit crew techniques to Teslas. “
But Tesla increased store and service center locations by just 6% in the third quarter, adding 41 new locations versus the second quarter of 2022. However, it added more mobile service vehicles to its fleet, which technicians service use to drive to fix customers cars on the spot when possible. At the end of the third quarter, Tesla said it was operating 728 store and service locations, with a fleet of 1,532 mobile service vehicles.
In its third-quarter earnings release, the company warned of a bottleneck in shipping capacity to deliver new cars in the final weeks of the quarter and said it was “transitioning to a softer pace of delivery.”
Tesla’s power unit generated $1.12 billion in revenue for the quarter. This division sells backup batteries for residential, commercial and utility use, and installs solar roofs.
The increase in energy revenue came mainly from sales of energy storage systems. The company said it installed energy storage systems with a capacity of 2,100 megawatt-hours (or 2.1 gigawatt hours) during the quarter and noted, “Demand for our storage products remains greater than our ability to supply.”
The company’s energy division competes for battery supplies with its automotive division and against other electric vehicle manufacturers. Tesla wrote, on the deck of its shareholders, “We continue to believe that battery supply chain constraints will be the main limiting factor for the growth of the electric vehicle market in the medium and long term.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
