Global electric vehicle indicator - Business performance report for Q2 2024 released this morning. Tesla CEO Musk confirmed the media news during the earnings call, announcing that Robotaxi's plan release date will be postponed from August 8th to October 10th. As of press time, Tesla has fallen by more than 7% before the market opens. Specifically, in Q2 2024, Tesla's total revenue returned to positive growth trajectory, achieving revenue of $25.5 billion, an increase of nearly 2.3% year-on-year and higher than market expectations. In terms of business segments, the most critical automotive business revenue in Q2 was $19.9 billion, which exceeded market expectations. However, looking further, the main reason for exceeding expectations was that carbon credits revenue reached more than twice the previous quarter's $0.442 billion revenue, reaching a record of $0.89 billion revenue for a single quarter. Meanwhile, auto sales revenue was $18.5 billion, actually lower than the market's expected $18.7 billion.$Tesla (TSLA.US)$The weather is good today The weather is good today.Please use your Futubull account to access the feature..

As Tesla CEO Musk confirmed in the earnings call, the release of Robotaxi plan has been postponed from August 8th to October 10th, according to previous media reports. On July 24th, Tesla plunged at the opening and fell more than 12%, and as of press time, it was down 11.49% at $218.06.

Specifically, in Q2 2024, Tesla's total revenue returned to positive growth trajectory, achieving revenue of $25.5 billion, an increase of nearly 2.3% year-on-year and higher than market expectations.

In terms of business segments, the most critical automotive business revenue in Q2 was $19.9 billion, which exceeded market expectations. However, looking further, the main reason for exceeding expectations was that carbon credits revenue reached more than twice the previous quarter's $0.442 billion revenue, reaching a record of $0.89 billion revenue for a single quarter. Meanwhile, auto sales revenue was $18.5 billion, actually lower than the market's expected $18.7 billion.

In addition, in terms of energy business, Q2 achieved revenue of $3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 100%, which is the key reason why Tesla's overall revenue exceeded expectations this quarter. In terms of delivery results, energy storage installations were 9.4 Gwh, more than doubled from the first quarter's 4 Gwh. In addition, the energy business's gross margin rate was as high as 25%.

As the most important observation indicator of each quarter, the gross margin of autos business excluding carbon selling points has fallen to 14.6%, far below the market's expected 16.2%, a decrease of 1.7 percentage points month-over-month. This also reflects the cost behind Tesla's selling cars with discounts in June to curb the steep sales decline in April and May.

However, with the doubling of pure profit from carbon credit income, the overall automotive gross margin rate is 18%, barely stabilizing and unchanged from the previous quarter.

Is Musk continuing to make promises he can't keep?

Tesla CEO Musk showcased his technique of making big promises at the earnings conference, emphasizing Tesla's great prospects in autonomous driving and other areas. He emphasized that Tesla's long-term value is "automation" and reiterated his often-mentioned vision that future Tesla will eventually become "Airbnb on wheels".

Since about 2016, Musk has been exploring Tesla's road to automation, namely "Fully Self-Driving (FSD)." Tesla is working on a stand-alone self-driving taxi service called Robotaxi, which is highly anticipated by the market.

Musk also revealed that Tesla will hold an unveiling event for Robotaxi on October 10th, which is delayed from the previously announced August 8th release date. Therefore, whether Tesla's Robotaxi will be launched as scheduled in October this year is an important observation point.

During the Q&A session of the call, Musk was asked when shareholders could expect to see the "first unmanned taxi" on the road. Musk admitted his past predictions were "overly optimistic" and "drew a cake" again, saying, "If we can't do it next year, I'll be shocked… Tesla will solve the problem of autonomous driving. If you don't believe it, sell your stock."

However, Musk avoided several questions in the earnings conference call involving the status of the company's long-promised autonomous driving cars, including whether they have traditional control equipment such as pedals and steering wheels.

This question is crucial for Tesla's much-anticipated RoboTaxi plan, which has been delayed for further prototyping work. In theory, vehicles without steering wheels and pedals could take months or even years to be approved for public roads. In contrast, vehicles equipped with more traditional control devices could make it to market more quickly.

In addition, Musk said that Tesla may obtain FSD licenses in other markets by the end of this year, such as Europe and China.

How does Wall Street look at this?

Facing this performance, Wall Street seems relatively "pessimistic" and the market has not been temporarily moved by the beautiful picture painted by Musk.

Barclays believes that although Musk has always emphasized the future development of Tesla in AI and autonomous driving and other fields, this report has shifted investors' attention back to the company's fundamentals. At present, profit margin has become the focus of the market again, but considering the continued pressure on car prices, Tesla's profit margin may be difficult to significantly increase.

Dan Coatsworth, an investment analyst at AJ Bell, said that Tesla has missed its profitability target for four consecutive quarters.

There is a lot of discussion about unmanned taxis, humanoid robots, and autonomous driving, which provides exciting narratives for investors, but one fact cannot be ignored: these are potential wealth for tomorrow, not today.

UBS Group released a report pointing out that Tesla's stock price rose due to the AI trend, and some investors hope that the second-quarter performance will be better than expected. However, the reality is that the current business may make people realize the difficult situation of its fundamentals. There may be some noise in terms of operating profit and earnings per share compared to market expectations, but the bank believes that the market has not yet reflected the impact of Tesla's restructuring. UBS Group expects investors to have a negative reaction to Tesla's performance and rates it as "sell", with a target price of $197.

David Wagner, a stock and portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors, which is a Tesla investor, said that Musk is good at dangling carrots in front of investors, but new ideas often have a long-term vision and poor execution.

In addition, investors also need to be wary that as the US presidential election approaches, the prospect of Trump coming to power may also have an impact on Tesla.

Can Optimus and Dojo have a bright future? Musk apparently hasn't forgotten to draw a picture of Optimus robots and Dojo supercomputers at the financial report meeting. Musk said he believes that by next year, Tesla's factories will have "thousands of" Optimus humanoid robots doing different jobs.

Musk stated that this may have "some impact" on Tesla, but it will not be disastrous for the company. He also emphasized that the impact on Tesla's competitors will be greater. In addition, he mentioned that Tesla's plan to build a factory in Mexico is still on hold because "we need to see what happens after the election".

However, the US investment bank Piper Sandler went against the trend and raised Tesla's target price from $205 to $300.

Mooers,

At the time of Tesla's sharp drop,

Should we hold on firmly or cash out?

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section~

Editor/Somer