Washington, – Tesla again defrauded investors and analysts by reporting today losses of $ 702 million in the first quarter of the year, higher than expected, and only 1% lower than those of the same period of 2018.
Although the company and analysts already knew that the results of the quarter would be bad since the April 4 announced that it had only delivered 63,000 vehicles in this period, instead of the planned 76,000, the losses announced by the manufacturer of electric vehicles of luxury exceeded expectations.
The 702 million dollars represent a loss of 4.1 dollars per share against the 1.8 dollars per share that the markets had predicted.
And although revenues stood at 4,541 million dollars, 33% more than a year ago, the increase was insufficient because the forecast was for the figure to be around 5,200 million dollars.
Tesla’s operating expenses increased 3% to 1,087 million dollars, while the company recorded operating losses of 521.8 million dollars.
Regarding liquidity, the company concluded the first three months of the year with 2,198 million dollars in liquid and equivalents, 18% less than a year ago and 40% less than the situation at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018.
Tesla said in a statement that this reduction in liquidity is the result of the payment of 920 million dollars of bonds and “an increase in the number of vehicles in transit to buyers at the end of the first quarter.”
In addition, Tesla operations consumed 640 million cash during the period.
Despite the poor results, the company’s founder, Elon Musk, and his top executives tried to minimize the importance of the quarter during a conference call with analysts and media outlets after the results were published.
“Last quarter we enjoyed a massive increase in the volume of deliveries in Europe, similar to the one that North America experienced last year, as well as a massive increase in deliveries in China,” Musk said.
Despite the optimistic words of Musk and its financial director, Zach Kirkhorn, the analysts showed their skepticism about Tesla’s plans, especially those referring to the commercialization strategy of the Model 3, the vehicle that has become the main trick of the manufacturer.
When Musk announced the Model 3, it sold it to the public as a model that would end up popularizing electric vehicles among the average consumer, because its price would be $ 35,000, a figure that competes with combustion cars, compared to $ 100,000 of the Model S and X.
But Tesla has only briefly sold a Model 3 at the price of $ 35,000: Kirkhorn acknowledged today that the average sale price of the vehicle in North America is $ 50,000, almost 43% more than initially announced.
The vagaries of Tesla with the strategy of Model 3 concern analysts who today questioned Musk about prices and the real numbers of orders that the manufacturer is receiving.
And if initially Tesla had no problems for months to publicize the immense initial demand for Model 3, at $ 35,000 per unit, Musk refused to give specific data as deceptive.
“We see strong demand for vehicles, both the S and X models and the 3,” Musk explained, adding that part of the reason for the lower demand in the first quarter is that “people do not like it. buy vehicles in the winter “.
Tesla also reported that during this period Tesla produced 62,975 units of Model 3, 3% more than in the last quarter of 2018, an increase that the company itself described as “modest” and blamed “changes in the production process for the introduction of new variants “of the vehicle.
In addition, the company produced 14,163 units of the Model S and Model X, 43% less than in the last quarter of 2018.
Deliveries of Model 3 were 50,928 units, 20% less than in the last three months of last year. The deliveries of Model S and X were 12,091, which represents a reduction of 56% (EFEUSA).
