Tesla Motors posted Q2 results that missed Wall Street expectations, but the company stuck to an ambitious plan that calls for delivering between 80,000-90,000 electric cars in 2016.
Tesla Motors reported a Q2 loss of $293 million compared to $184 million a year earlier. Tesla’s revenue rose 33% from a year earlier to $1.27 billion, but its operating expenses jumped 34% to $512.8 million.
Tesla said it delivered 14,402 new vehicles, consisting of 9,764 Model S and 4, 638 Model X, which was higher than the company stated in its July production update.
Tesla said that it finished the second quarter consistently making 2,000 vehicles per week. For the entire quarter, Tesla produced a record total of 18,345 vehicles, an 18 percent increase over the number of cars Tesla made in the previous quarter and up 43 percent over the second fiscal quarter of 2015. Nearly half of the cars it produced occurred in the final four weeks of the quarter.
With the improvements in vehicle production efficiency, Tesla said it expects to make 2,200 vehicles a week by the end of the third quarter, and 2,400 a week by the end of the fiscal year.
Meanwhile, new vehicle orders rose 67 percent over the same quarter last year.
Although Tesla fell far short of Wall Street estimates for earnings and revenue, the company showed progress in increasing its production capabilities, which have long been an issue for the electric automaker.
With these improvements, Tesla said it is on track to deliver 50,000 vehicles in the latter half of this year, which reaffirms its previous guidance.
Tesla said it completed the design phase for its Model 3, which it is being marketed as a more affordable version of its high-end cars. Some production equipment for the Model 3 is ready, and Tesla expects to begin building the body and general assembly centers later this year.
After the Model 3, the next priority will be developing the Model Y, a small compact SUV that was also mentioned in the Master Plan. CEO Elon Musk said he expects strong demand for this vehicle in the range of 500,000 to 1 million units a year. Musk did not, however, mention when the Model Y might be unveiled.
During the subsequent investor call Elon Musk put a more specific timetable on the company’s recently-announced plans for making an electric semi truck and minibus. The company now plans to unveil the new vehicles in early to mid 2017, according to Musk.
“We expect to unveil those for the middle of next year, maybe the next six to nine months type of thing. And then [we’d] have a better, more fleshed-out plan for when those would enter production,” Musk said. The Tesla CEO had mentioned a possible unveiling in 2017 when he announced the vehicles last month in his updated “Tesla Master Plan” — a follow up to the goal-specific mission statement that he published for the company back in 2006 — but this was the closest he’s come to discussing an actual date.
Earlier this week, Tesla agreed to buy SolarCity for $2.6 billion, after first proposing the deal in June.
