Tesla Inc.
TSLA 0.80%
reported its first sequential decline in quarterly profit in more than a year as it recovers from an extended shutdown at its Shanghai assembly plant.
The electric-car maker on Wednesday reported second-quarter revenue of $16.9 billion, down from $18.8 billion in the first quarter. Analysts had expected Tesla to report around $16.5 billion in sales.
The world’s most valuable car company posted $2.3 billion in second-quarter profit, ahead of the $1.9 billion Wall Street was expecting and below its record quarterly profit of $3.3 billion in the first three months of the year. It generated $1.1 billion in profit during last year’s second quarter.
The challenges of recent months have prompted concern among investors about Tesla’s ability to meet its 2022 production goals. Chief Executive
Elon Musk
struck an optimistic tone in April, saying the company likely would produce more than 1.5 million vehicles this year, up some 60% over last year and ahead of its long-term target of increasing deliveries by an average of 50% annually over the coming years. Tesla on Wednesday reiterated that multiyear goal. Wall Street now estimates Tesla could struggle to turn out 1.4 million vehicles.
Tesla said it has sold 75% of the bitcoin it had purchased, adding $936 million to its balance sheet in the second quarter. The comany had bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in early 2021, when the cryptocurrency was trading above $28,000. Bitcoin fell below $17,700 in mid-June, according to CoinDesk.
Tesla said foreign currency headwinds also weighed on results with the dollar up strongly against many other currencies.
Tesla has laid off staff in recent weeks, after Mr. Musk told employees in June that the company had “become overstaffed in many areas.”
Tesla’s stock price has fallen by around a third in 2022 amid a broader drop in equities and certain company-specific headwinds. Tesla has had trouble getting two new factories up to speed, one of them in Germany and the other outside of Austin, Texas, Mr. Musk said in late May. At the time, he called the plants “gigantic money furnaces.”
The company has said it delivered around 254,695 vehicles to customers in the three months ended in June, down from 310,048 in the first quarter. Deliveries were up roughly 27% from last year’s second quarter, helped by the fact that Tesla reached a monthly production record in June, the company has said.
Mr. Musk, who is embroiled in a legal battle over his $44 billion deal to acquire
Twitter Inc.,
hasn’t said publicly whether he plans to participate in an analyst briefing later Wednesday. A Delaware judge on Tuesday agreed to Twitter’s request to fast-track a lawsuit seeking to compel Mr. Musk to consummate his purchase of the social-media company.
Tesla, like much of the auto industry, has been hiking prices as suppliers request more for their products. U.S. customers who ordered the long-range version of Tesla’s Model Y compact sport-utility vehicle in late June could expect to pay around $68,000, or some $14,000 more than they would have if they ordered the model a year earlier, according to Bernstein Research.
“If inflation calms down, we can lower prices for cars,” Mr. Musk said last week on Twitter.
Write to Rebecca Elliott at rebecca.elliott@wsj.com
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