Tesla has caused another disappointment: the car manufacturer reported a dramatic decline in profits by 71 percent on Tuesday after the Aviation conclusion. The company led by Elon Musk also announced that he wanted to revise its forecast for sales this year. The current trade conflicts and a “changing political mood” could significantly burden the demand for its vehicles in the near future, it was said by Tesla. The business results were generally below expectations. The bar was not too high, because it was already known that Tesla looks back on a weak quarter. At the beginning of April, the company already reported a decline in the number of vehicles delivered by 13 percent for this period. The quarterly report now provides a more comprehensive picture and underlines that Tesla’s profitability is also suffering. Teslas share price initially noticed a little changed in post -excessive trading. However, the share has lost considerable value in the past few months, it currently only costs around half as much as in December when it had reached a maximum. A year ago it was $ 1.4 billion. The operational profit margin was only 2.1 percent, in recent years Tesla had often shown double -digit margins. The situation would be much worse if the company did not have its highly profitable business with emission points. This time it brought $ 595 million, which exceeded the entire net profit. The company receives these certificates of governments for the production of electric cars and then sells them to competitors who helps to meet legal emission requirements. Sales in the auto business fell 20 percent, i.e. even more than the sales quantities. The total group turnover of $ 19.3 billion was almost $ 1.8 billion lower than analysts. The weakening of the business is associated, among other things, that CEO Elon Musk has become a controversial figure with his political commitment – Tesla may also allude to the political mood himself. Musk is one of the closest advisors of US President Donald Trump and, on behalf of the working group “Department of Government Efficiency” or “Doge”, arranged radical cuts in American authorities. Musk supported the AfD in Germany. In the past few weeks there has been a wave of demonstrations in front of Tesla shops that had to do with Musk’s government work. The protests had their focus in the United States, but also extended to Germany and other countries. In addition to Musk’s political positioning, analysts see other reasons for Teslas difficulties. The company’s product range is considered outdated, especially in China there are strong local competition such as BYD. The last important new vehicle for the mass market, the Model Y, came out five years ago. The pick-up transporter cybertruck introduced about a year and a half ago is just a niche model, and its sales figures disappoint. In the first quarter, according to the market research group COX Automotive on the American home market, Tesla sold only around half as many copies of the cybertruck as in the three final months 2024. The car manufacturer now repeated earlier, according to which he remained on course to bring out “more affordable models” in the first half of the year. So far, it is not quite clear whether this is completely new vehicle types or modified variants of previous models. The news agency “Reuters” reported a few days ago that the start of production for a cheaper new model would be delayed. So far, however, the company has promised growth for 2025, Musk even promised an increase of 20 to 30 percent some time ago. However, Tesla now refrains from this goal, without calling a precise goal. The company said in the next quarter report in three months there should be further details about the outlook for the year as a whole.
