Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Q2 2023 earnings call comes on the heels of the company’s Q2 2023 Update Letter. Tesla’s second quarter results were quite impressive, with the electric vehicle maker’s Q2 profits growing 20% to $0.91 per share and revenue increasing 47% to $24.93 billion.
Tesla’s total gross profit for the quarter experienced a 7% growth, amounting to $4.53 billion, while gross margins stood at 18.2%, marking a decrease from 19.3% in the first quarter. Excluding regulatory credits and leases, auto gross margins were reported at 18.1%, down from 18.3% in Q1.
The following are live updates from Tesla’s Q2 2023 earnings call. I will be updating this article in real-time, so please keep refreshing the page to view the latest updates on this story. The first entry starts at the bottom of the page.
17:35 CDT – That wraps up the Q2 2023 earnings call! Once again, thanks for staying with us for yet another live blog! Until the next one!
17:32 CDT – A Goldman Sachs analyst asked about when automotive cogs would be under $36,000. CFO Zachary Kirkhorn noted that it’s hard to say, as there are innumerable factors to consider. The executive noted that commodity prices are dropping, however. “The trend is in being more efficient,” the executive said.
Kirkhorn also clarified that Giga Berlin and Giga Texas are still in their early phases. As the facilities get more optimized, their costs should be improved as well.
17:27 CDT – Oppenheimer asked about the operating system of Dojo. Musk noted that Dojo’s software is a combination of open-source and custom software.
17:24 CDT – Deutsche Bank asks about the estimated release date for a non-beta version of FSD. Musk did not commit to an exact date, though he did predict that FSD will be better than a human by the end of 2023. Musk also mentioned that the price of FSD is actually pretty low, considering the impact of autonomy.
17:18 CDT – Musk noted that it may be reasonable to sacrifice margins considering the potential of autonomy. Autonomy will have significant effects on the car market, the CEO predicted.
17:16 CDT – An analyst question about Dojo is asked, and its effects on Tesla’s financials. Musk noted that Tesla does not specify Dojo’s costs for now, though the company will likely be spending well over a billion on the supercomputer the next year.
As for potential competitors, Musk noted that the costs of developing such hardware are substantial. “In order to copy us, you’d need to spend well over a billion on a training computer,” Musk said. Kirkhorn noted that the numbers that the CEO mentioned for Dojo are between R&D and capital spending.
17:09 CDT – Elon Musk gives a shoutout to ARK Invest, stating that the firm’s analysis is among the best. He also pledges to give long-term value to shareholders. “I’m confident will deliver in the long term, but can’t control the short term,” Musk said.
17:05 CDT – A question about Tesla’s demand is asked. Musk noted that Tesla is fortunate enough to have real-time data on its vehicles’ demand and production. “We’re in turbulent times. I’m very confident in Tesla,” Musk said. The CEO also noted that he sees a least a 5x growth in Tesla, maybe a 10X growth in the future.
17:00 CDT – When asked about Tesla’s estimated demand for Optimus, Musk joked that the humanoid robot’s production would be immense. There are a lot of challenges with Optimus’ ramp, however, as even its actuators have to be custom-made. No suppliers produce the actuators that Tesla needs for its humanoid robot.
What is exciting is that Tesla will be trying out Optimus in its own factories. Elon Musk predicts Optimus will be useful by next year. Elon Musk also talked about using Neuralink to provide bionic parts to amputees, using Optimus parts. Now that’s futuristic!
16:56 CDT – In response to a question about the repairability of megacasted vehicles, Elon Musk joked “There might be why everyone is copying us.” Tesla executives also explained that the repairability of traditionally-produced vehicles is overestimated.
sThe company is working on repairability, of course, and estimates suggest that it is 10x cheaper and 3x faster to fix a vehicle with a megacast. This means that collision repair will be cheaper and faster over time. “I think basically it will be how all cars will be made in the future,” the executive said.
16:54 CDT – A question about the Cybertruck’s demand is asked. Musk’s response is clear. “Demand is so far off the hook, you can’t even see the hook,” the CEO said, though he also set expectations by reminding customers that there is a lot of new technology in the Cybertruck. Mass production is still set for next year.
16:53 CDT – In response to a question about FSD transferability, Musk provided a clear answer. As of Q3, FSD can be transferred to a new car. “It’s a one-time amnesty,” Musk joked.
16:52 CDT – In response to a question about Tesla’s costs and effects from the IRA, Zachary Kirkhorn noted that the company is working on reducing costs in Texas and Berlin, with both facilities seeing improvements during Q2.
16:48 CDT – A question about Tesla Energy was asked. Tesla notes that the Energy Business is gaining some momentum, especially as the Megapack is seeing a lot of demand. Megapack margins remain strong and within expectations, and Autobidder is continuing to grow. Tesla surpassed half a million Powewalls installed as well.
16:46 CDT – First investor question is asked, and it’s about 4680 battery cells. A Tesla executive noted that Tesla is currently focused on yield, though a 25% reduction on cell cost has been achieved. Giga Texas’ 4680 production increased 80% as well. By the time the Cybertruck scales, Tesla expects its 4680 program to be at a pretty good level.
16:44 CDT – Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn takes the stage. He also congratulates the company for yet another record quarter. Kirkhorn notes that Q2 is another record quarter in terms of profit. He also mentioned several of the company’s projects, from the Cybertruck to the next-generation platform. He did, however, also stated that Tesla increased its spending on AI projects, such as FSD, Optimus, and Dojo.
16:41 CDT – The CEO also discussed the rise of Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS). In this light, FSD may also be licensed by “major OEMS” in the future. Discussions are already ongoing. In closing, Musk thanked the Tesla team for their hard work once more.
16:39 CDT – Musk confirms that the FSD Beta program has now traveled 300 million miles! He also praised the Cybertruck, noting that Tesla worked hard on every millimeter of the vehicle. “This is the first truck that will have 4 doors, over a 6 ft bed, and can still fit in a 20 ft garage,” Musk said, highlighting that the pickup truck will be delivered this year.
16:36 CDT – Similar to past quarters, Musk highlights Tesla’s work in autonomy, noting that the company’s Robotaxi will have “quasi-infinite demand.” This may sound like another lofty Musk prediction, but with Dojo, Tesla’s FSD and Autopilot efforts are likely to accelerate. As noted by the CEO, Tesla’s Dojo training computer is designed to lower the cost of neural net training.
16:34 CDT – Elon Musk takes the stage. He mentions several of Tesla’s milestones in the second quarter, such as the Model Y becoming the world’s best-selling car in the first quarter. While there is a lot of macro uncertainty, operating margins are still at 10%. Musk warns that Q3 levels will be a bit lower due to factory shutdowns.
16:32 CDT – Tesla VP for Investor Relations Martin Viecha takes the stage. He provides an overview of the rules. Here we go!
16:29 CDT – And the music is starting! I wonder if we’re starting at Elon Time? The Q2 results were great though, so I have a feeling the earnings call will start on time this quarter.
16:25 CDT – Hi, everyone, and welcome to yet another live blog! Tesla’s Q2 numbers are quite impressive, with the company posting better-than-expected results. The Q2 2023 Update Letter also suggested that serious work is underway to produce the Cybertruck, arguably the most highly-anticipated electric vehicle today.
Here’s the YouTube livestream for Tesla’s Q2 2023 earnings call.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
Investor's Corner
Tesla crushes Wall Street expectations, beats delivery estimates by over 15 percent
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) beat Wall Street expectations of 406,000 vehicles delivered in Q2 by reporting 480,126 deliveries for the three months ending in June.
Tesla reported it delivered 467,762 Model 3 and Model Y units, while 12,364 Model S, Model X, and Cybertrucks switched hands during the quarter. The Model S and Model X were officially sunset this past quarter and will no longer be part of the company’s Production & Delivery reports moving forward.
🚨 BREAKING: Tesla delivered 480,126 vehicles in Q2, ANNIHILATING Wall Street expectations of 406,000. Production was reported at 451,758.
Deliveries:
Model 3/Y: 467,762
Other Models: 12,364Production:
Model 3/Y: 442,936
Other Models: 8,822 https://t.co/TTHwQAsKt8 pic.twitter.com/7qI4Zj6FE5— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 2, 2026
The quarter is a pleasant surprise and a good rebound from Q1, when Tesla slightly missed the Wall Street consensus of 365,645 cars by reporting 358,023 deliveries for the first three motnhs of the year.
Energy storage deployments also provided some strength in Tesla’s delivery report, hitting 13.5 GWh for Q2. This is a particular division of Tesla’s business that has been overwhelmingly robust over the past few years, truly being a strong point of the company’s overall model.
For the year, Tesla analysts still predict deliveries to trend in the 1.69 million unit region, a modest 3 to 5 percent increase from the 1.64 million cars the company delivered last year. Tesla will likely return to more sequential and noticeable year-over-year growth as the Cybercab project starts to ramp up considerably in the next few years.
Tesla has some other potential catalysts to spur vehicle deliveries, too. Not only is it expecting Cybercab to truly start making a change in the next few years, but other vehicles could be entering the company’s lineup.
Tesla sends production Cybercab with no steering wheel, pedals to on-road testing
The slightly longer Model Y L has been a highly speculated release candidate in the U.S. It has already done incredibly well in China, and U.S. buyers have been wanting slightly more interior space than the Model Y. Now that the Model X is gone, it is more needed than ever.
Q2 highlights a pretty stable automotive division within Tesla, and no true concerns arise from these figures, especially considering it managed to beat expectations convincingly.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’
Tesla short seller Michael Burry, the subject of the film “The Big Short,” where he was portrayed by Steve Carell, has revealed he has opened a new bet against the stock.
In a new update to his Substack newsletter in a post titled “Trading Post June 30, 2026,” Burry revealed a new set of bets against Tesla, Caterpillar, NVIDIA, Applied Materials Inc., and the iShares Semiconductor ETF.
In regard to Tesla, Burry wrote:
“And finally I shorted Tesla at 416.22. Happy it jumped back to this level.”
This means Burry likely opened his new short position after the company’s recent rally on Wall Street, which saw Tesla shares sink in mid-May, only to recover to well over the $400 mark. Currently, shares trade at around $427.
The company saw a big Tuesday as shares climbed considerably, over 10 percent. The size of the Tesla short was not provided, nor did Burry give any information on the position’s structure, the number of shares, dollar value, or whether options were used in the short.
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
Over the years, Burry has been one of the more vocal critics of Tesla, calling its share price “media inflated,” and saying it was “ridiculously overvalued” as recently as December.
The company has largely transitioned away from being known as an automotive company and instead is much more widely regarded as an AI play, mostly due to its Full Self-Driving efforts, Optimus robot development, and data collection related to both.
This has not pulled those skeptics away from being vocal about their distaste for how Tesla is valued, but there’s no denying that the company is a global force in many things, including sustainable energy, automotive, and AI.
Wedbush Securities is initiating stock coverage on SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), marking the first comments on the company since it went public several weeks ago. Wedbush and its analyst handling coverage, Dan Ives, are widely bullish on fellow Musk company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).
Ives wrote his first note initiating coverage of SpaceX shares on Wednesday with a $190 price target and an ‘Outperform’ rating. The firm believes the company is well positioned off of its IPO because of its wide array of projects, including AI compute power and infrastructure, connectivity projects, and launches.
“We view SpaceX as one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market with a strong footprint across its three core markets, with Starlink driving success with connectivity,” Ives wrote, “Starship launches leading to a demand flywheel and increasing deal flow for its Colossus clusters.”
Elon Musk called it Epic: The full story of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 12
Wedbush leans heavily on Starlink, which they say is the “profitability driver given the strength of its recurring revenue base of ~12 million subscribers as of June 5th.” Ives believes Starlink is still in the “early innings” of penetrating the global telecommunications and broadband market, as it only holds less than a 1 percent share. However, this number is sure to increase over time.
It also highlights the importance of Starship, which it says is an “essential layer” of SpaceX’s overall success. SpaceX developing and displaying the ability to reuse rockets is a major cost and reliability advantage “as it reduces the necessary hardware launch costs while generating a feedback loop for future flights to improve their launch flight rate without accelerating capex spend.”
Finally, SpaceX’s recent AI/Compute projects are also very elementary, Ives writes. It is worth mentioning Wedbush said its $190 price target is derived from a valuation forecast that sees the company yielding roughly $2.48 trillion of implied enterprise value.
There are also some factors that Wedbush did not take into account with its initial coverage. The firm wrote in the note:
“We note that there is optional value coming from Starship’s accelerating scale towards sub-$200/kg unit economics, orbital data centers, and enterprise AI monetization as these factors could drive meaningful upside but these face major hurdles, so we do not take that into account with our valuation.”
SpaceX shares are down just over 2 percent today, trading at around $167 at the time of publication.
Tesla brings Model Y L ‘Launch Series’ to the U.S. at $61,990
Tesla just told us twice that Model Y L is coming to the U.S.
