22.16
Tesla rattled investors on Wednesday by reporting profit that decreased short of expectations and revealing that its chief financial officer is leaving — the newest senior executive to exit the electric car firm.
CEO Elon Musk mentioned on an earnings call Wednesday that CFO Deepak Ahuja is retiring. Ahuja had returned to the firm less than two years ago after its preceding CFO suddenly quit.
Following the announcement by Musk, Tesla (TSLA) shares decreased about 5% in after-hours trading. The firm was shaken last year by a series of departures by top managers, this includes a chief accounting officer who left after less than a month.
Musk mentioned that Ahuja's retirement is not going to be instant, and that he will recommence to serve as a senior adviser to the firm. Zach Kirkhorn, the company's ongoing vice president of finance, will substitute him as CFO.
He'll inherit a remunerative company. Tesla on Wednesday reported net profit of $139 mlln. for the 3 months finished in December, its second consecutive quarter in the black.
But the newest earnings were down from the $312 mlln. profit Tesla posted for the preceding quarter and reduce than investors had hoped. The previously profit marked the first quarter since 2016 that the firm hadn't lost cash. Musk pledged at the time it was a sign of more healthy earnings to come.
One of Tesla's immense problems was the months-long struggle to ramp up production of its Model 3 sedan. On Wednesday, the firm sought to reassure investors that the manufacturing woes are through.
"Model 3's production rate gradually improved" last quarter, "with December 2018 being our highest volume month ever," Tesla executives mentioned in a letter.
The firm said it expects to be producing about 7,000 automobiles per week at its factory in Fremont, California, by the closing of the year. Tesla mentioned that as it goes on to jumpstart Model 3 production rates, it expects the cost per automobile to decline.
"It is vital that we recommence this trend so as to we can keep going up the affordability of Model 3 while retaining a sustainable level of profitability," the firm said.
Earlier this month, Tesla announced layoffs affecting about 7% of its full-time workforce. Musk mentioned the layoffs were needed to facilitate Tesla to sell variants of the Model 3 at reduce price points.
The cheapest Model 3s are currently offering for about $44,000, but Tesla has long promised to come to a $35,000 version accesible.
A new plant in China could jumpstart the Model 3 production rate even higher.
"Barring unintended challenges" with the planned factory in Shanghai, the firm said, the added assembly lines could bring weekly Model 3 production to ten,000 at one time between October 2019 and June 2020. Musk, who has often set deadlines that aren't met, mentioned he expects to hit that rate by the closing of 2019.
Tesla mentioned its money stockpile grew to $3.7 billion in December, up from $3 billion in September. Investors keep a nearby eye on Tesla's money stores for the reason that the firm has hundreds of mllns. of dollars in debt payments due in the coming months.
"We increased our money on hand by more than $700 mlln., even after paying debt," last quarter, Musk mentioned Wednesday, adding that Tesla has sufficient to pay off debt coming due in March.
Looking forward, Musk mentioned he's "optimistic about being profitable" in the first quarter of 2019 — but "not by a lot." The company alerted its results from the ongoing quarter will call to mind a "one-time restructuring cost."
To post a profit, Tesla will have to "successfully implement on multiple fronts this includes handling logistics and delivery challenges in Europe and China," the firm said.
Musk mentioned Tesla is in addition focused heavily on improving service operations in North America after reports of poor client service and fix delays. Musk has mentioned Tesla suffered with logistical issues as it rushed to deliver Model 3 automobiles to consumers after solving production backlogs.
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