After the U.S. stock market on April 23, local time, Tesla released the latest "report card".
Against the backdrop of intensified competition in the new energy vehicle market, Tesla's first-quarter revenue fell 9% year-on-year to $21.3 billion, the first year-on-year decline in nearly four years and the largest decline since 2012, net profit fell 55% year-on-year to $1.13 billion, and free cash flow was negative $2.5 billion.
But on the earnings call, Musk also made an important statement about Wall Street's "education".
This caused Tesla's stock price to soar 13% after hours, ending a seven-day losing streak.
Let's take a look at what he said.
Musk's words "save Tesla's stock price"
"There's really a lot of talk about new product roadmaps," Musk said on the earnings call, "slapping in the face" previous media reports that the development of cheap models had been canceled:
We have updated our lineup of future models to accelerate the launch of new models.
Musk said that if a new model cannot be launched later this year, then it could be launched in early 2025.
In early April, the media reported that Tesla had abandoned the development plan of the low-cost Model 2 (starting at less than $30,000) and shifted its focus to the development of Robotaxi in the future. Musk quickly came forward to deny it, calling it untrue, but then announced that it would officially release Robotaxi on August 8.
According to Musk, the new model is expected to go into production in the second half of 2025, and the production platform will combine some of the features of the next-generation platform and the platform currently used to produce the Model 3 and Model Y. He said:
The new model will be produced more efficiently on the existing production line without the need for a new plant or a large-scale new production line.
Musk expects this could increase Tesla's annual production capacity to more than 3 million vehicles.
Although Tesla has once again promised to launch a more affordable electric vehicle, it has not yet confirmed that it will be the new budget model that was previously planned. Analysts believe that the new model may just be a stripped-down version of the Model 3 or Model Y, with the Model 3 currently starting at $38,990 in North America.
After Tesla announced plans to maintain the new model, Dan Ives, a Wedbush analyst who has long been bullish on Tesla, said in an interview with the media that the Model 2.5 will be unveiled in 2025.
Musk educates Wall Street: Tesla is an AI or robotics company
Revenue and earnings were lower than expected, but during the earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk once again emphasized to Wall Street investment banks that we should be considered an artificial intelligence (AI) or robotics company:
If you look at Tesla as a car company, that's the wrong framework.
I mean, if someone doesn't believe that Tesla is going to solve the automation problem, I don't think they should be an investor in this company.
Musk said that it is impossible for investors to truly understand the company without experiencing FSD firsthand, "I again strongly recommend that anyone considering buying Tesla stock should actually drive a car with the software and experience the latest version of FSD." ”
This means that if you don't agree that Tesla is an AI company, you shouldn't buy stocks.
At the same time, Musk said that in the future, Tesla will operate millions of "Robotaxis" (Robotaxis) to form a robo-taxi fleet similar to Uber ride-hailing, and Tesla owners will also have the opportunity to rent their Tesla cars to provide rides, and plans to disclose more details about Robotaxi in August.
At the same time, Tesla also released a preview version of calling self-driving cars through the Tesla app on the social media platform "X".
Musk is betting on FSD with all his might
During the call, Musk spent most of his time telling the market about Tesla's FSD technology and future AI plans.
In November last year, Tesla began rolling out the Full Self-Driving (FSD) V12 version to its employees. FSD V12 is considered a major leap forward in Tesla's self-driving technology, and it is the first time that Tesla has started using neural networks for vehicle control, including controlling steering, acceleration, and braking.
Starting March 16, 2024, Tesla began pushing the latest FSD Beta V12.3 version of the advanced driver assistance system to FSD subscribers and subscribers throughout the United States, and cut the monthly subscription fee by 50% to $99 on April 13.
At present, Tesla's FSD is priced at $12,000 (about 86,800 yuan) in North America for a lifetime buyout or $99 (about 716.62 yuan) per month.
Musk believes that the $99/month FSD subscription service is a way for the company to make FSD more accessible to customers.
Musk also noted that negotiations are now underway with a major automaker for the licensing of a "fully self-driving" system (FSD), and said that a licensing agreement is "very likely" to be signed this year. However, Tesla's management mentioned that even if a licensing agreement is reached this year, it will take three years to integrate it into other cars.
Musk firmly believes that the unmanned taxi will disrupt the entire industry, can liberate people from the heavy driving work, and will be like the current online car-hailing, when you want to use the car, you can call a driverless taxi at any time, it will take you to your destination, and then go to pick up the next passenger.
Musk believes that Tesla will become a $10 trillion company with a market value of unmanned taxis, and requires a push for new car design and a new factory to be compatible with both cars: an assembly line that produces affordable cars, which can also be used to produce driverless taxis.
Sawyer Merritt, an electric vehicle analyst and Tesla investor, said the data shows that the adoption of FSD is accelerating, with Tesla owners driving an average of about 250% more per day in FSD mode than three months ago, reaching 14.7 million miles. At the current rate of growth, Tesla's cumulative FSD mileage could increase by 1 billion miles every 68 days. In comparison, it took Tesla 3.5 years to reach its first billion FSD mileage.
Some institutional investors who are optimistic about Tesla believe that the driverless taxi platform business is expected to significantly improve the company's profit level. The gross profit margin of the deferred revenue part realized by FSD is as high as 90%, and the FSD software service business is expected to become the company's biggest attraction in the future.
But there are also investors who are losing confidence, with Bloomberg analyst Steve Man saying institutional investors are losing patience, with the initial hype around fully autonomous driving and robo-taxis waning and "the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction."
According to a survey conducted by Canaccord Genuity, a Canadian investment bank, consumers' willingness to pay has not increased significantly, even after experiencing FSD technology this year. The survey results showed that only 6.3% of the 60.2% of participants who had tried FSD technology this year were willing to pay $12,000 for it, while about 80.6% were willing to pay $12,000 or less.
⭐ Star Wall Street news, good content do not miss ⭐ This article does not constitute personal investment advice, does not represent the views of the platform, the market is risky, investment needs to be cautious, please make independent judgment and decision-making.