Tesla is in worse shape than you think

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/28/business/things-at-tesla-are-worse-than-they-appear/index.html

by FireBeyond • 1 year ago

26 33 1 year ago

The bottom line problem at Tesla is its vanishing bottom line. A deeper look at its first quarter report shows it’s now losing money on what should be its ostensible reason for existence – selling cars.
It was only able to post a $409 million profit in the quarter thanks to the sale of $595 million worth of regulatory credits to other automakers.

This last part should be alarming to Tesla "fans". In every Tesla post here, there are those who tout the "Tesla is making huge profits, they have nothing to worry about".

cratermoon2• 1 year ago

Worth noting that DOGE's smash-and-grab on regulatory agencies is almost certain, given how chaotic and incompetent the actions are, to bump into Tesla's dependencies on federal money. We've already seen knock-on affects of the tariff war, which merit a single short mention in the article.

jmye2• 1 year ago

In a rational world, I’d think you were right. In the weirdo, crony world we currently appear to live in, I expect that all subsidies to competitors will end and Tesla’s will remain untouched via fiat.

There’s just no reason for an administration that already produced a state-run ad for the company to stop cutting them breaks.

duxup2• 1 year ago

It's not a great when the head of the company is there to announce that they are in some turn of phrase or another "not dead" or not close to it.

Just having to talk about that seems bad...

JohnnyHerz4• 1 year ago

i refuse read the biased news from CNN or FOX or MSNBC

However, I've read countless Bloomberg articles on Tesla, and the company has significant competitive advantage over every automaker (Including BYD) when it comes to manufacturing and selling EV's in the US and elsewhere.

If you are inclined to drive an EV, or own stock in an EV company, Tesla is still the gold standard.

sidibe• 1 year ago

It's like the gold standard in that it's something that used to be a big deal in the past.

cantrecallmypwd• 1 year ago

BYD has overtaken Tesla technically but isn't allowed in the US due to anti-competitive, pseudo-nativist protectionism (and also a lack of homologation which doesn't make financial sense because of the previous point.)

JohnnyHerz4• 1 year ago

"homologation" ...thanks for teaching me a new word that nobody would understand if i ever used it.

“Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.” ― Mark Twain

incomingpain3• 1 year ago

Elon lied and said he had funding secured to take tesla private.

SEC came in and got a settlement from tesla because it was a crime.

This in late 2018 however changed the situation greatly at tesla. Shortly after this, yes the model Y and Cybertruck eventually happened but tesla really slowed down. Not well known, but essentially the usa government took control of tesla after this. The government even voided his compensation as being ceo. Essentially forcing him to work for free.

If I look at Tesla's financials right now.

12.87% % of Shares Held by All Insider

But "all insider" isn't just Elon himself. That's all the peoples at the top.

You might imagine that Tesla is basically on autopilot now. Elon doesnt even own that much of tesla anymore. Doesnt really direct it much anymore. Far more interest in other private interests like spacex.

Then you have political movements of domestic terrorists firebombing and vandalizing teslas that have nothing at all to do with elon or tesla.

Tesla is in bad shape.

tenacious_tuna• 1 year ago

firebombing and vandalizing teslas that have nothing at all to do with elon

Can you elaborate on this? AFAIK it's entirely to do with Elon & his politics.

incomingpain3• 1 year ago

The ownership of a tesla car after it's sold has nothing to do with elon. Any debt moves to someone else. Insurance is someone else.

Elon and his financial interests are not involved at all. 0$ impact to elon.

Moreover, if you're looking at politics. Republicans dont own teslas... it was democrats who pushed electric cars and tended to buy teslas. So it's democrats destroying other democrat's cars.

What's very suspicious to me is that because of the firebombings, now republicans are buying teslas? lol what? did tesla realize they were politically walled in sales and have staged this to sell more? perhaps too conspiracy.

queenkjuul3• 1 year ago

Neither you nor trump nor musk will ever convince me that vandalism is terrorism.

incomingpain3• 1 year ago

Neither you nor trump nor musk will ever convince me that vandalism is terrorism.

I guess technically I havent seen trump nor musk say this. It was the FBI who labelled it such.

Domestic terrorism to me is ideologically or in this case politically motivated violence with an intent to influence or coerce the victims into changing something they dont want to change.

That's totally what's happening here.

JohnnyHerz4• 1 year ago

Nothing in your post has anything to do with the fundamentals of Tesla's business. You are just echoing the anti-elon propoganda. The anti-Elon movement is a moment in time that will not affect the longterm viability of Tesla's business model.

Like it or not, Tesla as a company is still years ahead of other US competitors and has a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Tesla is not "in bad shape" relative to the competition. IF you are going to talk about auto companies in "bad shape", Tesla doesn't even make the top 10

apercu2• 1 year ago

Do you own Tesla stock?

panick21_3• 1 year ago

I strongly moved out of Tesla when at the same time, Semi wasn't moving forward, Cybertruck seemed questionable and somehow they decided against Model 2 (affordable model). Not going for a mass market Model 2 was really where I lost interest. I never believed in the FSD beyond some additional revenue, but instead of focusing making a nice product, they just used it as a beta.

I really hopped they wouldn't just do 'a truck' but would quickly build a single line to build a trucks, a large SUV and a van on one platform. But the Cybertruck hard-locks you into a very limited and unique construction. The fundamental technology of the Cybertruck seems pretty good to me, but I would want them to build multiple vehicles on that kind of platform. Between Pickups, Vans and large SUV, you would be hitting 3 huge markets.

Another issue is that they used their good efficiency numbers to put smaller batteries into the car. This worked while other were not very efficient. But the competitors were willing to put a bit more battery into the car and thus ended up with sometimes better range.

There were a bunch of other issues stacking up that I think they never really fully figured out.

The biggest sin of all is Robotaxi. I just never fucking worked. Going all in into Robotaxi instead of, cars that can actually be sold is crazy. They somehow believe that Robotaxi will collapse the car market by 80%, and then of those left over 20% the Model 3 and Model Y can dominate that. Completely idiotic analysis in my opinion, from many different perspectives.

I already pulled out most of it before Musk went full politics. And then I eliminated the position when Musk went all in on Trump. It was a good investment as it lasted.

duxup2• 1 year ago

It does seem like Tesla hit a home run of sorts and sort of keeps swinging for the fences rather than trying to bat for a good average.

panick21_3• 1 year ago

Hyperfocus is one of Musk big strength. Like it was for Jobs. The power of saying no. Having a clear vision and focusing the company on that.

When Tesla was working on 3/Y they had that. And it really worked.

But as a car company after you have a car like that, you need to move into many niches large and small. And you can't have the overall company focus on any one project. You need a pipeline of new cars, new upgrades and so on.

And then the thing they did seem to primarily focus on, FSD, didn't work nearly as well as Musk thought. He got obsessed with thinking AI was on an S-Curve upwards and it would just be solved fast.

m4632• 1 year ago

I read the book "Ludicrous" and found it interesting.

It said that what tesla was doing was creating a prestige brand known for advanced yet not affordable features.

If they made affordable versions, people would assume it would be like the high-end tesla and better than a comparable car from another manufacturer.

However, the high-end tesla vehicles were not really validating the musk "master plan" of affordable cars with the same characteristics.

A similar affordable car would have to have reduced features and capabilities, and it might not be profitable (because tesla is not cost efficient).

Nissan took the affordable ev route long before tesla and wasn't very successful.

And now other brands and the supply chains are catching up, making ev versions of their cars, with the desirable features and established manufacturing.

panick21_3• 1 year ago

I haven't read the book but I'm not really sure I agree.

Tesla were affordable in a car market where the avg new car was the cost of a Model Y/3. And they sold really well.

I don't think we can imply anything about what people would have assumed if they had released a cheaper car. That all depends on positioning and market.

On the high end, they didn't provide enough differentiation with the X/S. Not upgrading them quickly enough and not pushing more into luxury to compete with more expensive German cars and Lexus. But that's not a huge part of the market.

because tesla is not cost efficient

Tesla is plenty cost efficient, the reality is, nobody can make a huge profit on a cheap car. And most can't get even close.

Tesla with their integrated strategy could have made a compelling 25k car, it would just need more options then the normal Tesla approach.

But its worth doing just to get to scale and capture that large market. Because once you establish yourself their, its gone be harder for others to move in. And then bring cost down over-time.

Nissan took the affordable ev route long before tesla and wasn't very successful.

I mean not really. They dipped their toe into it and never moved beyond the initial generation. So I don't think its a fair comparison.

And now other brands and the supply chains are catching up, making ev versions of their cars, with the desirable features and established manufacturing.

The established manufacturing doesn't totally hold up. Because building EV is so different that upgrade cost are huge and some of the best competitors use new factories as well.

I do agree that Tesla failed to provide some features that they really could and should have provided. Like a 360 view around the car for example.

m4632• 1 year ago

I looked the other day, and I saw cybertrucks with discounts and free everything including supercharging for life and self-driving.

nunez• 1 year ago

Yup. Repeated 0% APR offers on their best selling vehicle (Model Y) and free supercharging. Apparently they are also throwing in CCS adapters that were $450 just last year.

They wouldn't have done any of this last year.

Tesla is in worse shape than you think

Related Stories