Tesla Q1 report shows losses once again, but less than expected

7 May 2015

Image of Tesla S via Tesla

Despite much hype and interest in the company, Tesla’s Q1 2015 financial results showed once again the company is making a loss, but not as large a one as market analysts had predicted.

According to its financial filing, the electric vehicle (EV) and now home battery makers made total revenues of US$1.1bn in the first part of this year, with a loss of individual share value of US$0.36, despite analysts predicting it to be somewhere closer to revenues of US$1.05bn and a loss of US$0.49 on each share.

In terms of production targets, all appeared to be on track for the company, which announced that its Model S EV managed to just make it over the line in terms of numbers, shipping 10,045 cars compared with its original estimate of 10,030 out of a total number produced of 11,160.

The company expect to produce 12,500 in Q2 this year, marking a 12pc sequential increase, while setting a target of shipping 11,000 of these during this period, or 55,000 of its S and X models by the end of 2015.

Potential European Tesla owners will unfortunately be hit with a 5pc increase in the costs of their cars due to the ever-growing strength of the dollar, but this will not be implemented until new orders in Q3.

The less-than-expected losses appear to have benefited Elon Musk’s company as, after the Q1 report, the company’s shares increased by as much as 5pc.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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