{"id":37986,"date":"2023-07-20T01:29:11","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T05:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/investing\/opinion-as-investors-worry-about-lower-tesla-margins-musk-says-full-self-driving-is-key-to-future-profits\/"},"modified":"2023-07-20T01:29:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T05:29:12","slug":"opinion-as-investors-worry-about-lower-tesla-margins-musk-says-full-self-driving-is-key-to-future-profits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Telsa Inc. reported its lowest gross margins in over three years Wednesday, as the company has lowered prices on its electric vehicles and spent on ramping up another new factory, but Chief Executive Elon Musk told investors to focus on the bigger picture.<\/p>\n

Tesla reported second-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street\u2019s estimates on an adjusted basis, and a revenue jump of 47% to $24.9 billion. But its GAAP gross margins fell to 18.2%, its lowest operating margins since the fourth quarter of 2020, when they hit 19.2%. In the first quarter they were 19.3%.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cLook, the short-term variance in gross margin and profitability really are minor relative to the long-term picture,\u201d Musk said in response to a question about margins on the company\u2019s call with investors and analysts. \u201cAutonomy will make all of these numbers look silly.\u201d <\/p>\n

And of course, that bigger picture, in Musk\u2019s crystal ball, is Tesla\u2019s
\n TSLA,
\n -0.71%<\/bg-quote>
\n Full-Self Driving technology, which he envisions will turn its cars into robotaxis in the not-too-distant future. In Musk\u2019s view, Tesla vehicles will become appreciating assets that their owners will be able to rent out, like Airbnbs. <\/p>\n

(Just for a reality check: Remember Musk\u2019s 2019 prediction of having 1 million robotaxis on the road in 2020? Yes, so do we.)<\/p>\n

Even Musk admitted that he is now known as the \u201cboy who cried FSD [Full Self-Driving], but, man, I think we\u2019ll be better than human by the end of this year.\u201d He also admitted that he had been wrong in the past, and he \u201cmay be wrong this time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Regulators, meanwhile, have been investigating whether Tesla\u2019s Full Self-Driving and Autopilot features falsely overstate their capabilities.<\/p>\n

Also see:<\/strong> Elon Musk says his new company xAI will \u2018enhance\u2019 Tesla value<\/p>\n

Fully self-driving cars are not without problems of their own. In San Francisco, where several companies are testing their autonomous vehicles, and Alphabet\u2019s
\n GOOGL,
\n -1.40%<\/bg-quote><\/p>\n

GOOG,
\n -1.05%<\/bg-quote>
\n Waymo and General Motors Co.\u2019s
\n GM,
\n +0.26%<\/bg-quote>
\n Cruise are seeking to deploy fare-generating robotaxi services, many citizens and city officials are in an uproar over the problems they cause, ranging from randomly stopping in traffic to blocking emergency vehicles to crashing into public transit.<\/p>\n

Back to the topic of lower margins, Musk said that, for now, it makes sense \u201cto sacrifice margins in favor of making more vehicles, because we think in the not-too-distant future they will have a dramatic valuation increase. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Tesla fleet value increase \u2014 the point of which we can upload Full Self-Driving and it\u2019s approved by regulators \u2014 will be the single biggest step change in asset value, maybe in history,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

Having a car that does not depreciate the minute it is driven off the lot would indeed be an economic improvement for consumers, and Teslas do depreciate at a slower rate than most gas-consuming vehicles. But this idea still seems very far off \u2014 if ever.<\/p>\n

Musk added on the company\u2019s call that Tesla is willing to license its Full Self-Driving software to other car makers, the second time he has mentioned it, but this time he added that the company is in \u201cearly discussions with a major OEM [original equipment manufacturer] about using Tesla FSD.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tesla executives also cautioned about the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty. Tesla shares fell nearly 5% in extended trading Wednesday, as there was no clear guidance on when margins may improve. Investors are likely focusing more on the numbers that were actually reported, instead of the optimistic future of the world\u2019s most famous car salesman. <\/p>\n

From 2019: <\/strong>Elon Musk is just another car salesman<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Telsa Inc. reported its lowest gross margins in over three years Wednesday, as the company has lowered prices on its electric vehicles and spent on ramping up another new factory, but Chief Executive Elon Musk told investors to focus on the bigger picture. Tesla reported second-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street\u2019s estimates on an adjusted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-37986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-video"],"yoast_head":"\nOpinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Telsa Inc. reported its lowest gross margins in over three years Wednesday, as the company has lowered prices on its electric vehicles and spent on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits | iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Telsa Inc. reported its lowest gross margins in over three years Wednesday, as the company has lowered prices on its electric vehicles and spent on\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-20T05:29:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-20T05:29:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/1688304340_social.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\"},\"headline\":\"Opinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-20T05:29:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-20T05:29:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986\"},\"wordCount\":613,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Investing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986\",\"name\":\"Opinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits | iFintechWorld\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-20T05:29:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-20T05:29:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"Telsa Inc. reported its lowest gross margins in over three years Wednesday, as the company has lowered prices on its electric vehicles and spent on\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Opinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"description\":\"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"width\":558,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Repay Down\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Opinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits | iFintechWorld","description":"Telsa Inc. reported its lowest gross margins in over three years Wednesday, as the company has lowered prices on its electric vehicles and spent on","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Opinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits | iFintechWorld","og_description":"Telsa Inc. reported its lowest gross margins in over three years Wednesday, as the company has lowered prices on its electric vehicles and spent on","og_url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986","og_site_name":"iFintechWorld","article_published_time":"2023-07-20T05:29:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-07-20T05:29:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/1688304340_social.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61"},"headline":"Opinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits","datePublished":"2023-07-20T05:29:11+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-20T05:29:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986"},"wordCount":613,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Featured"],"articleSection":["Investing"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986","name":"Opinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits | iFintechWorld","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-07-20T05:29:11+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-20T05:29:12+00:00","description":"Telsa Inc. reported its lowest gross margins in over three years Wednesday, as the company has lowered prices on its electric vehicles and spent on","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=37986#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Opinion: As investors worry about lower Tesla margins, Musk says Full Self-Driving is key to future profits"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","name":"Repay Down","description":"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization","name":"Repay Down","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","width":558,"height":90,"caption":"Repay Down"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com"],"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37987,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37986\/revisions\/37987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}