Sputtering progress

24 July 2019 By Antony Currie Follow @AntonyMCurrie

Elon Musk managed to rev up the electric-car maker’s production and deliveries last quarter. But selling more low-priced cars put the brakes on margins. Cost-cutting is helping some but needed investments remain parked in the garage. The road to sustained profit remains unclear.

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Tesla reported a second-quarter loss of $408 million after U.S. stock markets closed on July 24. At $2.31 a share in the red, the company’s performance was worse than the mean sell-side analyst estimate of a loss of $1.45 a share, according to data from Refinitiv. Excluding restructuring charges, Tesla lost $1.12 a share, compared with a mean adjusted estimated loss of 40 cents.

Revenue of $6.3 billion was just shy of the estimated $6.4 billion. The company ended the quarter with almost $5 billion in cash, compared with $2.2 billion at the end of March. Excluding the $2.4 billion raised from equity and convertible-bond investors in May, cash on hand rose by $400 million.

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