Tesla stocks took another substantial hit of more than 11% on Wednesday as the company released Q2 results that tell a complex story of a company facing struggles on different fronts.
The report contained some notes of optimism, with upcoming releases, energy innovations, and the anticipated “robotaxi” reveal.
Optimism Shaken
Tesla are coming off a successful year in 2023, which contained steep increases in car production and deliveries.
The company’s stock more than doubled in price, with a 101.7% increase in value, but are not yet seeing this trend continue in 2024.
Burst Bubble?
Companies always face peaks and troughs, and Tesla is no different.
In 2024, they faced a number of setbacks, with reduced sales, and the delay to a long-awaited announcement.
Robotaxi Still in the Rank
Tesla were initially due to announce their new “robotaxi” offering, but the reveal has been pushed back to later in the year.
The date was moved from the initial date set, August 8, to a date closer to Halloween, on October 10.
Nosedive in Sales
Sales were forecast by many earlier in the month to drop from the same period in the previous year, as Q1 sales had.
Some predictions were especially pessimistic, with Barclays using “buyside expectations” to predict only 415,000 sales.
Gloomy Predictions Proven Correct
Unfortunately for Tesla supporters, the gloomy sales forecasts were not convincingly countered in Tesla’s Q2 report.
Tesla reported 443,956 unit sales across their car brands, which represents a more than 5% decrease on Q2 2023.
Worst Year-On-Year Sales Drop for Over a Decade
The sales drop in Q2 represents the first time since 2012, that year-on-year Tesla sales have dropped for 2 quarters running.
In 2012, Tesla faced a similar problem, in part due to the phase-out of the Tesla Roadster.
Reasons for Optimism?
Tesla can point to sharp increases in energy storage capacity, which is one area in which the company is seeing dramatic improvements.
It is only in the past couple of quarterly reports that Tesla have started to include the figures, from their Tesla Energy division, in their main quarterly reports.
Increase in Sales?
Although the Q2 figures are a 5% decrease on sales from the same period last year, the figures may not be as damaging as they at first appear.
Q2 still saw a substantial increase in sales and deliveries over Q1, which indicates that the sales are not in a continuous fall, as some had feared.
Future Plans
Tesla maintains a number of ongoing projects, which are expected to be revealed in coming months.
These include new, more affordable vehicle models, which may be released in early 2025.
