this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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AI Summary:

Tesla's 2024 financial results were disappointing, with several key points highlighted:

  • Automotive Revenues: Fell by 8% in Q4 2024 compared to Q4 2023, totaling $19.8 billion.
  • Energy and Storage Revenues: More than doubled, growing by 113% to $3 billion in Q4 2024.
  • Services: Grew by 31% in Q4 2024, contributing $2.8 billion.
  • Total Revenue: Increased by 2% in Q4 2024, but income fell by 23%, with an operating margin of 6.2%.
  • Net Profits: Dropped by 71% to $2.3 billion in Q4 2024.
  • Annual Performance: Automotive revenues decreased by 6% to $77 billion in 2024. Energy generation and storage increased by 67% to $10 billion. Services grew by 27%, bringing in $10.5 billion.
  • Gross Profits: Fell by 1%, with net profits dropping by 53% to $7.1 billion for the year.
  • Free Cash Flow: Decreased by 18% to $3.6 billion.
  • Regulatory Credits: $2.8 billion of profit came from selling regulatory credits, not from core business activities.
  • Future Predictions: Tesla expects energy storage revenues to grow by at least 50% year-over-year and aims to grow automotive sales by more than 60% in 2025.

Despite the poor financial results, Tesla's share price increased by 103% over the same period.

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[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

it's ok, the president will make some rediculous executive order like "all federal vehicles must be tesla", then do no price haggling or something and it'll pull him right out of that bind.

Sadly I don't think I'm joking.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

People don't want Swasticars? Huh.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 5 points 1 hour ago

You know you fucked up when you made it so people hear nazi car and think of your company and not the car company founded by the nazi government

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 35 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Ah, but you've forgotten the real money maker.

  • Having full control over the regulatory authority that currently prevents him putting his automated deathtrap taxis on the roads

Turns out it's much cheaper to buy governments than it is to perfect self driving technology.

[–] ansiz@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

He probably needs all the H1B visas for his remote taxi drivers. I doubt the latency would be good enough otherwise. And it was clear in the 'demo' the pilot was just standing right there controlling it.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 points 4 hours ago

I doubt latency would be an issue.

More the fact that they'll be juggling too many at once.

[–] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 2 points 5 hours ago

Credits aside, these dont seem like bad numbers when compared to spend/investment. Tesla management got what they wanted.

[–] NoSpiritAnimal@lemmy.world 9 points 8 hours ago

Ah so only the unverifiable services that don't require an easily trackable commodity did well.

I wish I could make up income too.

[–] PanArab@lemm.ee 12 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I wouldn't buy a Tesla even if Elon wasn't a Nazi and a Zionist.

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 15 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

I can barely see how they were so popular up to now anyway. I, too, thought they were cool like 10 years ago, when they were the only real electric car (Leaf and I-Miev don't count and we didn't get the Bolt or Volt here, only Opel Ampera and Ampera-E, which are ultra rare). Then a couple of years later, I realized some things, in this order: 1) Tesla interiors are THE BLANDEST THING EVER, 2) Elon Musk's been seeming increasingly weird starting with the cave diving incident, 3) Tesla quality control is absolute shite

Tesla changed the world by proving you CAN have good range and performance in an EV, but now they're way past their prime. The Germans, Swedes, Koreans and now I believe EVEN THE CHINESE make better EVs. I have no experience with non-Tesla American EVs to comment on those, but I wouldn't be surprised if they surpass Tesla in overall quality of vehicle in a few years too.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 3 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Service being up 30% is a bad thing for the consumer. For a vehicle that doesn't require much at all in the way of service...

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I'm not sure what Services means there though. It could very well include subscriptions rather than the actual servicing of their cars? Or maybe both?

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

re though. It could very well include subscriptions rather than the actual servicing of their cars? Or maybe both?

true. the report is very very vague

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Swedes? You mean Volvo? Aren't those manufactured in China as well or nah?

[–] boonhet@lemm.ee 4 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Well yeah, they're about as Swedish now as Chrysler is American. Maybe a tiny bit more.

Still, they produce a lot of cars in Sweden, are traded on the Swedish stock market and are headquarered in Göteborg.

Honestly, I think they're doing better now than they were under Ford, but obviously they'll never match the quality of Volvo's old RWD bricks.

[–] Matombo@feddit.org 4 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

i guess time to short it? seems like a bubble

[–] __Lost__@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

The problem is that it has been a bubble for most of its public trading existence. It was highly overvalued 10 years ago, the stock price has never made sense, so who knows when it will finally correct.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

All it needs is a couple of opportunistic fuckers to take advantage of chaos and that shit will plummet like a fucking rock.

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 1 points 11 minutes ago

This is the reason they're legislating against all the Chinese EVs that are 90% as good for 40% of the price.

A brand new 12-15k electric car from a competitor would evaporate Tesla's bubble so quick.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 6 points 9 hours ago

Bill Gates is famously shorting TSLA (1)

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 8 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (3 children)

Net profits $2.3B. "Poor financial results". How does one reconcile these two things?

But yeah, I live in a country that has had about 0% growth since 2008 :-| Perhaps this is bad news for you rich yankees.

Also note that the automotive industry seems to be pretty much flatlining for the last 5 years or so: https://www.vettafi.com/indexing/index/autos -- so Tesla is not doing particurarily badly in the large picture.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 15 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Net profits $2.3B. "Poor financial results". How does one reconcile these two things?

That's 2.3B USD on a 1.29T USD valuation, or 0.17%.

Valuations should be reflective of expected future profits. Multiples of ×20 yearly profit are possible for risky (tech or biotech usually) companies, with large potential profit. But the ratio is ridiculously off the charts for tesla. If it does not improve, it will have turned out to have been a very wastefull use of capital.

[–] sirboozebum@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

The issue is the price to earnings ratio of the Tesla stock which is almost 200:1.

The level of profit is not bad for a normally price company but Telsa needs to have profits grow exponentially to justify their stock price.

[–] tekato@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

It used to be double that, so I can see why people see it as a bad thing. But I also don’t think 7.1B profits qualifies as “poor financial results”, even if it used to be higher.

[–] thejml@lemm.ee 67 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

If any other company dropped net profits by 71% they’d be firing their CEOs (well giving them a golden parachute to gtfo) and having some major shake ups.

[–] Kitathalla@lemy.lol 4 points 5 hours ago

Good thing musky got that big compensation package shoved through, eh?

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 60 points 19 hours ago

The CEO is too busy playing social media edgelord. I guess when you blow up a company to the point where it will pop, you have to go into politics to change the laws to make it more profitable.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 53 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

https://fortune.com/2025/01/29/tesla-shares-rally-2025-earnings-growth/

Tesla shares rally on pledge to return to growth in 2025

Continuing the bullshit from 2022, where Musk promised a typical year would have growth of 50!!

Tesla plans to launch its autonomous ride-hailing service in Austin in June

Hows that going Elron?

“This is not some far off mythical situation,” Musk said on the company’s call with analysts. “It’s literally five months away.”

So it's been LITERALLY running for more than a half year now? Or is it still a no show, like the 7 previous years FSD should have been here?

We can do this TODAY.

He has said that so many times, on so many things, and it's always a lie. FSD, Convoys of trucks that are cheaper than trains! Tesla being able to park. which it still can't do reliably. And this is the very beginning of the claim that a Tesla can drive across the country (USA) to pick you up!

Did ANYONE believe his bullshit ever, do people believe he will build a manned base on Mars eventually? A base that should have been up and running I think it was 2022!!!

How is this man not in jail?

Oh right, probably much the same way Trump is not in jail. USA is an oligarchy moving towards a fascist dictatorship!!

[–] foggenbooty@lemmy.world 1 points 33 minutes ago

I believed him at first, why wouldn't I? Self driving was starting to take shape, the demos looked good, I assumed what he was saying was legitimate.

I remember starting to question things around the time of the Tesla Semi reveal. It didn't make sense to me that you'd use heavy, short range batteries in an industry that runs by driving as far as possible, for as cheap as possible, hauling as much as possible. There were just too many compromises and he didn't give any details other than acceleration (who cares in trucking).

After that I started looking into him more and realized his bullshit spread through everything he touched. I honestly think most people are simply not paying attention to him, they just read headlines and since headlines never call him out and only amp up the crazy ambitious things he says, people believe he's a genius.

That seems to be slowly changing as he opens his stupid mouth about politics, but he's pivoting to a new audience now.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 10 points 12 hours ago

tessla plans to launch it's autonomous ride hailing service

Autonomous driving, like he's promised he already had every year for over a decade now.

Who does anyone believe this scammer? He is a con man, always had been, and I'm just amazed at the enormous amount of idiots believing his shit

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago
[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 163 points 1 day ago (19 children)

Value investing is basically dead, isn't it? Am I crazy? How can you objectively evaluate a company's value, notice it is undervalued, and then trade accordingly when price action does not even slightly track the company's value?

[–] iii@mander.xyz 2 points 26 minutes ago

Value investing is basically dead, isn't it?

You're looking at a too short time frame. The famous tulip bubble lasted for a decade, too.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

I wondered that a while ago when Tesla was worth more than many other car makers combined while producing far less vehicles than any single one of them. And I remember people telling me about projections and expectations and that it’s only a matter of time until everyone drives a Tesla basically. Sounded like mass hysteria to me back then because the rest of the world won’t just sit there quietly and let Tesla have a monopoly. People bought shares because they rose rapidly in value, causing even more people to buy shares. It’s a pyramid scheme like so many things these days and people have no problem with it apparently. They love gambling and playing lottery. Value investing is too boring for them.

[–] Cheems@lemmy.world 6 points 15 hours ago

It's gambling

[–] cevn@lemmy.world 136 points 1 day ago (6 children)

The investors are banking on Elon looting the Govt coffers into Tesla. I can’t deny the chances based on the other crap we are seeing.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 28 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Exclusive contracts at 20% mark up. Can’t wait for all police vehicles to switch over to teslas.

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[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 85 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

So more than a third of their net profits come from selling credits they received from the government? Am I understanding that correctly?

[–] sushibowl@feddit.nl 23 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

They are emissions credits. Every company receives some amount of "CO2 emission credits" from the government. These allow you to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide. If you don't emit all the CO2 that your credits allow, you can sell those credits to other companies that need more than the government gives them.

The idea is to put a total limit on the amount of emissions in the country, while letting the market figure out where it makes most sense economically to invest in emission reduction.

Tesla makes only EV cars and so it doesn't need all the credits a typical gasoline car company would receive. So they sell them.

[–] FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

"Tesla makes only EV cars and so it doesn't need all the credits a typical gasoline car company would receive. So they sell them."

Which means the system isn't working. Surplus credits should come from improved efficiencies, not excessive allotment.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Which means the system isn't working. Surplus credits should come from improved efficiencies, not excessive allotment.

Total number of credit goes down over time. That mechanism ensures an adapt, die or emigrate pressure for large polluters, and a financial stimulus for small-polluters.

[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 37 points 22 hours ago (5 children)

Yes you are understanding that correctly. For producing EVs, they get credits from the federal government. I don't know the exchange rate -- e.g., how many EVs per credit.

Then, Tesla turns around and sells these credits to buyers, usually other companies. Companies buy these credits from Tesla to comply with regulations requiring certain environmental outcomes, and credits count towards these outcomes.

In theory this type of program incentivizes and rewards companies who invest in the technology(is) tied to these credits, in this case EVs. In practice it's a way for other companies to comply with renewables regulations without actually doing anything to meaningfully reduce their impact and footprint (other than buying credits)

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[–] splinter@lemm.ee 20 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

You are. Without the EV credits, Tesla would have folded years ago.

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