Latest news with #TESLA
Daily Express
a day ago
- Automotive
- Daily Express
Tesla says it started building initial versions of an affordable car; posts a steep sales decline
Published on: Thursday, July 24, 2025 Published on: Thu, Jul 24, 2025 By: [] Text Size: Tesla said it expects volume production of the long-promised cheaper vehicle in the second half of this year, raising hopes it will rekindle demand as it battles rising competition from cheaper EVs, especially in China, and a persistent backlash against Musk's far-right political views. TESLA said on Wednesday it has built initial versions of an affordable car, a move likely meant to stem the steep decline in sales the company has experienced in markets across the world. Elon Musk's electric vehicle maker posted the worst quarterly sales decline in more than a decade and profit that missed Wall Street targets, but its profit margin on making cars was better than many feared. Tesla shares were down 2.6% in after-hours trading. Tesla said it expects volume production of the long-promised cheaper vehicle in the second half of this year, raising hopes it will rekindle demand as it battles rising competition from cheaper EVs, especially in China, and a persistent backlash against Musk's far-right political views. Tesla Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja said on a call with investors that production of the cheaper car would ramp up next quarter, slower than initially expected, and the company did not provide an update on its full-year deliveries forecast. 'Tesla's disappointing results aren't surprising given the rocky road it's traveled recently,' said Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne. 'A truly affordable model will hit the bullseye in terms of boosting sales if Tesla can effectively position it right without detracting from its higher-priced models.' The second straight quarterly revenue drop, with a 12% fall, comes despite rolling out a refreshed version of its best-selling Model Y SUV that investors had hoped would help revive demand. A 51% dive in sales of automotive regulatory credits, which other automakers who have difficulty complying with government emissions rules buy from Tesla, also hurt revenue and profit. Revenue fell to $22.5 billion for the April-June quarter from $25.50 billion a year earlier. Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $22.74 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Adjusted profit per share of 40 cents lagged the consensus of 43 cents per share. The automotive gross margin, which excludes regulatory credits, was 14.96%, above Wall Street estimates, helped in part by lower cost per vehicle. Tesla global deliveries dropped 13.5% in the second quarter, which was below Wall Street targets. Tesla had said in April it would start producing the more affordable model by the end of the first half and sources had told Reuters the vehicle, a stripped-down version of its Model Y SUV, would be delayed by at least months. Tesla on Wednesday did not disclose any details on the model, how many units it had made, or how it would be priced. The company said it continued to expect volume production of its custom-built robotaxi - called the Cybercab - and Semi truck in 2026. Much of the company's trillion-dollar valuation hangs on its bet on its robotaxi service - a small trial of which was started in Austin, Texas, last month with about a dozen Model Y SUVs - and on its development of humanoid robots. Investors are concerned about whether Musk will be able to devote enough time and attention to Tesla after he locked horns with President Donald Trump by forming a new political party this month. He had promised weeks earlier that he would cut back on government work and focus on his companies. A series of high-profile executive exits, including a longtime Musk confidant who oversaw sales and manufacturing in North America and Europe, is also adding to the concerns. - Reuters
The Sun
11-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Sun
Musk's Tesla marks formal India entry with Mumbai launch event
TESLA will open its first India showroom in Mumbai next week, having imported $1 million worth of cars and merchandise, marking its entry into the world's third-largest car market despite CEO Elon Musk's complaints about high import tariffs. In an invitation to media late Thursday, the carmaker said the July 15 event was the 'launch of Tesla in India through the opening of the Tesla experience centre at Bandra Kurla Complex,' located in the city's leading commercial business district. Grappling with excess manufacturing capacity at its other factories and falling sales, Tesla has pivoted to selling imported cars in India on which it will need to pay about 70% import duty and other levies. Commercially available custom records from January to June showed Tesla imported vehicles, chargers and accessories into India worth close to $1 million, mainly from China and the United States. The vehicles included six of Tesla's best-selling Model Y at a shipment value of $32,500 each for five cars, and $46,000 for the long-range version, as well as several Superchargers. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has for years wooed Tesla, including forming a new policy to attract the carmaker to build its EVs locally. Last year, Musk had planned to visit India where he was expected to announce an investment of $2 billion-$3 billion, including in local EV manufacturing. But he cancelled the trip at the last moment. Tesla has conveyed it is not interested in manufacturing in India at the moment. U.S. President Donald Trump has said that if Tesla were to build a factory in India to circumvent that country's tariffs, it would be 'unfair' to the U.S.' Tesla has hired for several of the three dozen positions it advertised in India earlier this year, bringing on board store managers, sales and service executives. It is looking for supply chain engineers and vehicle operators for its autopilot ambitions. - REUTERS
The Sun
11-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Sun
Tesla Enters India with Mumbai Launch, Imports Model Y
TESLA will open its first India showroom in Mumbai next week, having imported $1 million worth of cars and merchandise, marking its entry into the world's third-largest car market despite CEO Elon Musk's complaints about high import tariffs. In an invitation to media late Thursday, the carmaker said the July 15 event was the 'launch of Tesla in India through the opening of the Tesla experience centre at Bandra Kurla Complex,' located in the city's leading commercial business district. Grappling with excess manufacturing capacity at its other factories and falling sales, Tesla has pivoted to selling imported cars in India on which it will need to pay about 70% import duty and other levies. Commercially available custom records from January to June showed Tesla imported vehicles, chargers and accessories into India worth close to $1 million, mainly from China and the United States. The vehicles included six of Tesla's best-selling Model Y at a shipment value of $32,500 each for five cars, and $46,000 for the long-range version, as well as several Superchargers. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has for years wooed Tesla, including forming a new policy to attract the carmaker to build its EVs locally. Last year, Musk had planned to visit India where he was expected to announce an investment of $2 billion-$3 billion, including in local EV manufacturing. But he cancelled the trip at the last moment. Tesla has conveyed it is not interested in manufacturing in India at the moment. U.S. President Donald Trump has said that if Tesla were to build a factory in India to circumvent that country's tariffs, it would be 'unfair' to the U.S.' Tesla has hired for several of the three dozen positions it advertised in India earlier this year, bringing on board store managers, sales and service executives. It is looking for supply chain engineers and vehicle operators for its autopilot ambitions. - REUTERS
The Star
07-07-2025
- Business
- The Star
Tesla slides as Musk's 'America Party' sparks investor worries
The TESLA logo is seen outside a dealership in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, U.S., April 26, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo (Reuters) -Tesla shares fell nearly 7% in premarket trading on Monday after CEO Elon Musk's plans to launch a new U.S. political party raised investor doubts about his focus on the electric automaker's future. The former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) unveiled the 'America Party' on Saturday, voicing his displeasure over President Donald Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill'. This further escalates Musk's feud with Trump even as Tesla posted a second straight drop in quarterly deliveries. Their discord over the tax bill erupted into an all-out social media brawl in early June, with Trump threatening to cut Musk's government contracts and subsidies. "Investors are worried about two things – one is more Trump ire affecting subsidies and the other, more importantly, is a distracted Musk," said Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets. Investors had in May cheered Musk's decision to scale back political spending and remain Tesla CEO for another five years. He had spent nearly $300 million around Trump's re-election campaign last year. "But now (they) are worried he's going to (get) sucked back in and take his eye off Tesla," Wilson said. The first signs of investor unease surfaced soon after Musk's announcement, with investment firm Azoria Partners delaying the listing of a Tesla exchange-traded fund. Trump on Sunday called Musk's plans to form the "America Party" "ridiculous", saying the Musk ally he once named to lead NASA would have presented a conflict of interest given Musk's business interests in space. TESLA BOARD MOVES Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, a Tesla bull, said many investors are feeling a "sense of exhaustion" over Musk's insistence on immersing himself in politics. Azoria Partners CEO James Fishback posted several critical comments on X about Musk's new party, and called for the Tesla board to clarify Musk's political ambitions and evaluate if his political involvement is compatible with his obligations to Tesla as CEO. The new party undermines the confidence shareholders had that Musk would be focusing more on the company, Fishback said. Musk's latest political move raises questions around Tesla board's course of action. Its Chair Robyn Denholm in May denied a Wall Street Journal report that said board members were looking to replace the CEO. Tesla's board, which has been criticized for failing to provide oversight of its combative, headline-making CEO, faces a dilemma managing him as he oversees five other companies and his personal political ambitions. "This is exactly the kind of thing a board of directors would curtail - removing the CEO if he refused to curtail these kinds of activities," said Ann Lipton, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School and an expert in business law. "The Tesla board has been fairly supine; they have not, at least not in any demonstrable way, taken any action to force Musk to limit his outside ventures, and it's difficult to imagine they would begin now." Tensions with Trump, struggling sales and an aging vehicle line-up have hurt Tesla's stock, even as the company bets on growth from autonomous vehicles. The stock, which soared to over $488 in December after Trump's November re-election, has lost 35% since then and closed last week at $315.35. Tesla is the worst performing stock among "the Magnificent Seven" group of high-growth U.S. companies this year. (Reporting by Joel Jose and Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru and Amanda Cooper in London; additional reporting by Medha Singh; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Arun Koyyur)
New Straits Times
29-06-2025
- Automotive
- New Straits Times
Why Tesla's robotaxi launch was the easy part
TESLA finally has a robotaxi. Now comes the hard part. The electric-vehicle maker deployed its first-ever driverless cabs in Austin, Texas, on Sunday in a small-scale test of carefully monitored Model Y vehicles. Next, the company faces the steep challenge of executing on CEO Elon Musk's ambition to refine the software and upload it to millions of Teslas within a year or so. Such a rapid expansion will prove extremely difficult, about a dozen industry analysts and autonomous-vehicle technology experts told Reuters. These observers expressed a range of views about Tesla's prospects but all cautioned against assuming a light-speed robotaxi rollout. Some pointed to advantages Tesla might exploit to overtake rivals including Alphabet's Waymo and a host of Chinese auto and tech companies. Tesla has mass-manufacturing capacity, and it pioneered remote software updates it can use for self-driving upgrades. The automaker also does not use sensors such as radar and lidar like Waymo and most rivals; instead, it depends solely on cameras and artificial intelligence. "A rollout could be really quick. If the software works, Tesla robotaxi could drive any road in the world," said Seth Goldstein, a Morningstar senior equity analyst, while cautioning that Tesla is still "testing the product." In Austin, Tesla launched a choreographed experiment involving maybe a dozen cars, operating in limited geography, with safety monitors in the front passenger seat; remote "teleoperators"; plans to avoid bad weather; and hand-picked pro-Tesla influencers as passengers. For years, Musk has said Tesla would soon operate its own autonomous ride-hailing service and also turn any Tesla, new or used, into a cash-generating robotaxi for its customers. That will be "orders of magnitude" more difficult than testing in Austin, said Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor focused on autonomous-driving regulation. "It's like announcing that, 'I'm going to Mars' and then, you know, going to Cleveland," Smith said. Musk has said Tesla will reach Mars, in that metaphor, quite quickly: "I predict that there will be millions of Teslas operating fully autonomously in the second half of next year," he said in April. Tesla shares ended 8.2 per cent higher at US$348.68 on Monday on investor enthusiasm over the robotaxi launch. Given Tesla's AI-dependent approach, its challenge will be machine-training robotaxis to handle complex traffic "edge cases," said Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-engineering professor and autonomous-technology expert. That could take many years. "Look, how long has it taken Waymo?" Koopman asked. "There's no reason to believe Tesla will be any faster." Waymo's self-driving efforts date back to 2009, when Google started its self-driving car project. An egg-shaped prototype took its first ride on public streets in 2015 – also in Austin. Waymo has taken since then to build a 1,500-robotaxi fleet in select cities. A Waymo spokesperson said it plans to add 2,000 more vehicles by the end of 2026. Some analysts believe Tesla can expand faster, in part because Waymo has helped pave the way by overcoming regulatory and technical challenges. Being a mass-manufacturer also helps Tesla, analyst at market-research firm Forrester. Paul Miller, said. Tesla's go-fast strategy could actually slow its progress and that of the autonomous-vehicle industry if it undermines public trust, some analysts said. Tesla has historically faced legal and regulatory trouble involving its Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver-assistance system, which is not fully autonomous. In one recent federal safety probe into Tesla, investigators are examining FSD's role in crashes – some fatal – involving rain or other inclement weather that interferes with the system's cameras. Before the Austin test, Musk posted on his social-media platform, X, that the robotaxis' technology would differ little from any Tesla, aside from a software update: "These are unmodified Tesla cars coming straight from the factory, meaning that every Tesla," he wrote, "is capable of unsupervised self-driving!" The automaker invited Tesla-friendly influencers to take its first robotaxi rides, and they generally cheered the experience. One social-media video posted by a robotaxi passenger, however, showed the vehicle proceeding through a four-lane intersection with a traffic light – and into the wrong lane, for about six seconds. No oncoming traffic was in the lane at the time.
