Tesla Has Reported Its Biggest-Ever Losses As Model 3 Production Still Lags

Last year's small third-quarter profits are a distant memory for the Californian car maker, as this year it falls hundreds of millions of dollars into the red

Matt Kimberley

Updated: 10 Oct 2024

Tesla Has Reported Its Biggest-Ever Losses As Model 3 Production Still Lags

Tesla has released its worst financial results ever. Investment in increased production of both the Model S and Model X was apparently behind quarterly losses that shot up to $619 million (£468 million), and whichever way you slice that, it doesn’t look good.

It almost doubles the second-quarter losses posted by the tech pioneer. Versus the same three months last year it represents a negative swing of about $641 million. Ouch.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk has blamed ‘welding issues’ for delays in the Model 3’s production. The entry-level car is made mainly from steel, not the aluminium that the company is used to working with for the Model S and Model X. It makes that hypnotic production video look a bit redundant.

With the target of 20,000 Model 3s built by December now totally impossible because of production bottlenecks, wait times for a Model 3, as confirmed by Musk himself, are now expected to be around 12 months. There are around 400,000 people on the waiting list for a car. It’s enough to make people look elsewhere, and rivals could potentially exploit the delay. Time will tell.

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Comments

I think the decision to release all Tesla’s patents will start coming back to haunt them now as they start to lose their advantage over the mainstream auto industry. Everyone is working on an EV now and Tesla will become just another auto maker without the production scale to make it pay or the innovative tech to justify the price premium. The big players will surely push Tesla out of the picture. Perhaps Musk should sell it off while it’s still worth something and focus on getting his rockets to work properly.

Yay mor debt

The problem is: Tesla is great, but it needs manufacturer help. If for example, Ford would buy Tesla and help them make cars, Tesla would work much better.

In my opinion, this is more of a Musk problem than a Tesla problem. The man’s a dreamer who promises the best-case-scenario and just shrugs when he can’t deliver. You can’t take him seriously any more.