Things are undoubtedly bad at Tesla. Its sales are dwindling. Its profits are plunging, as is its share price. There are regular protests outside its showrooms. The Cybertruck is a flop. And somehow, it’s actually a lot worse than that.

The 71% drop in net income it just reported may have been overshadowed by CEO Elon Musk’s announcement that he would be stepping back from his controversial duties at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But that drop is just one indication of serious financial sickness at the EV maker, problems brought on by falling sales for the first time in its history and falling prices for electric vehicles.

The bottom line problem at Tesla is its vanishing bottom line. A deeper look at its first quarter report shows it’s now losing money on what should be its ostensible reason for existence – selling cars.

It was only able to post a $409 million profit in the quarter thanks to the sale of $595 million worth of regulatory credits to other automakers.

But if the Trump administration gets its way, the company can kiss those regulatory credits keeping it in the black goodbye, too.

  • tfm@europe.pub
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    6 hours ago

    Elon claims Tesla is already past that point.

    Elon claims a lot of shit. Most of them are lies. He cannot prove with real data that “FSD” really crashes less.

    Even if you’re skeptical of the claim, it’s clearly close enough to be concerned about.

    Again, Teslas aren’t even considered autonomous cars.

    Don’t get me wrong, I want to be optimistic. But currently it looks like this will take much longer to succeed than Elon and other hype men claimed.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      You’re being too pedantic. We clearly have cars that do a lot of their own driving, we clearly have people (multiple) making claims, and we clearly have at least one company piloting self-driving taxis. Let’s consider our ethics before it’s too late