Tesla just published its third-quarter earnings report, and while revenue was somewhat shy of expectations, profitability was strong.
Revenue reached $25.18 billion versus the expected $25.4 billion, while net profit came in healthy at $2.17 billion, well above the consensus among analysts. By far, the biggest help was a record gross margin of 19.8%.
The company delivered 462,890 vehicles, marking the first quarter of delivery growth this year and topping the 435,059 EVs delivered in the same period last year, though they are admittedly a tad below Wall Street’s forecast of 463,897 deliveries.
Tesla also remains optimistic about its future: the company expects “slight growth” in vehicle deliveries for 2024, though Musk suggested a 20-30% increase is possible. Tesla’s Energy Generation and Storage business is also performing strongly: it posted a record gross margin of 30.5% in Q3 and said that business would more than double year over year in 2024.
Tesla shares finished nearly 22% higher, adding tens of billions of dollars to the company’s market valuation for the company’s best day since 2013.
Ahead of Tesla’s Q3 release, the stock was about 11% below where it was when Tesla unveiled its robotaxi, called the Cybercab, at an event called “We, Robot.” CEO Elon Musk said the Cybercab will start volume production in 2026, with production targets of as much as 2 million units yearly, however, several things remain unclear over the development and testing strategy for the autonomous vehicle.
“We delivered strong results in Q3 with growth in vehicle deliveries both sequentially and year-on-year, resulting in record third-quarter volumes,” the company said in its earnings deck. “Preparations remain underway for our offering of new vehicles — including more affordable models — which we will begin launching in the first half of 2025.”
