On April 23, Tesla reported its Q1 2024 results, and explained its affordable car production strategy.
Tesla’s profit of USD 1.13 billion in Q1 was down 55.1% from the same period in 2023, while Adjusted EBITDA of USD 3.38 billion was down -20.7% from Q1 last year.
Q1 total production of 433,371 units was down 1.7%, as Model 3/Y production was down 2.1% to 412,376 units, and production of other models production was up 8.0% to 20,995 units.
While total deliveries of 386,810 units were down 8.5%, Model 3/Y deliveries were down 10.3% to 369,783 units, and other models were up 59.2% to 17,027 units.
Tesla believes its next growth surge will come from advances in autonomy and the introduction of new products, including those built on our next generation vehicle platform.
The company expects its vehicle volume growth rate to be notably lower than that achieved in 2023, as its teams work on the launch of the next generation vehicle and other products.
Tesla says it will accelerate the introduction of more affordable models in 2025 that will utilize aspects of the next-gen platform combined with its current platforms, and will produce those on the same manufacturing lines as its current vehicle line-up.
The company says that while it will achieve less cost reduction than previously expected, it can do so in a more capex efficient manner and more fully utilize its current expected maximum capacity of close to three million vehicles, enabling more than 50% growth over 2023 production numbers before investing in new manufacturing lines.
The purpose-built Robotaxi product will continue to pursue its new “unboxed” manufacturing strategy, though in the meantime, Tesla is suggesting a ride-hailing feature will be built into the Tesla app to allow driverless summoning of its vehicles once FSD is fully perfected.
(Tesla release on April 23, 2024) (Tesla 10-Q from April 23, 2024)