Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Q2 2024 earnings call comes on the heels of the company’s Q2 2024 Update Letter, which was released after the closing bell on Wednesday, July 23, 2024.
Tesla posted total revenues of $25.5 billion, with automotive revenues of $19.878 billion in the second quarter. The company also posted non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.52 and GAAP EPS of $0.42 for Q2. Tesla posted $1.6 billion GAAP operating income after restructuring charges of $600 million in the second quarter as well.
Q2 2024 Earnings Call starts in ~1.5h https://t.co/DnhM6ay60N— Tesla (@Tesla) July 23, 2024
The following are live updates from Tesla’s Q2 2024 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.
17:30 CDT: That’s a wrap! Thanks for reading and following along with our Live Blog! ‘Til next quarter!
17:27 CDT: Potential Trump Presidency could end IRA, and would Tesla have negative implications if IRA is ended, an analyst asks. Musk mulls the question and says “It would have some impact, but it would be devastation to our competitors.” Musk believes getting rid of the IRA would have minimal impact on Tesla. He continues to hound the point that Tesla’s value is highly reliant on autonomy and says if an investor does not believe the company will solve self-driving, they should sell their stock.
17:18 CDT: Musk breaks down the ride-sharing platform, highlighting the advantages: the vehicle could be used 24/7, and could be a full-time member of the vehicle fleet or a part-time contributor. Vehicle owner will share revenues with Tesla directly.
Rollout questions from Pierre Ferragu of New Street Research are met with confusion from Musk. “Every car will be capable,” as Ferragu asked if the early rollout of Robotaxi would be geofenced and small-scale.
17:14 CDT: Musk says GM canceled its self-driving, pedal-less, wheel-less vehicle was canceled because “it’s not up to par.” He says GM blamed regulators instead of being transparent about their self-driving efforts. “GM can’t make it work.”
17:12 CDT: Musk says Supervised FSD will come to China, Europe, “and other countries” upon the release of v12.6. It will submit regulatory approval when those versions are rolled out
17:04 CDT: Alex Potter of Piper Sandler asks about FSD licensing — “Can you elaborate on the mechanics of how this would work?” Potter asks if it would be “plug-and-play” or would OEMs have to adopt Tesla platform.
Musk confirms hardware would have to be upgraded: cameras and gateway with cellular and Wi-Fi capability would be required. “…it will be several years before we see this in volume,” Musk says. The CEO also adds that disclosure would depend on who the OEM licensing FSD is, and a volume minimum would be required.
16:59 CDT: Ben Kallo of Baird asks about the automotive revenue balance and how it will be impacted by AI. Musk says Optimus will likely be more of a contributor to company revenue than all other parts of the business combined. Musk believes 22 million units of humanoid robots will be demanded by customers worldwide, with Optimus leading the way. “We have all the ingredients; I think we are unique in having all of the ingredients [when it comes to humanoid robots],” Musk said. He also mentions ARK Invest’s analysis when factoring in AI and robotics.
Gigafactory Mexico is “paused” until after the election. Tesla will ramp up production at its existing factories.
16:58 CDT: Musk says he doesn’t want to give any details about future vehicles after an analyst question because it could cannibalize near-term sales.
16:53 CDT: Musk says Grok will make its way into Tesla vehicles at some point.
16:52 CDT: Does Tesla feel it is cheating people from the joy of owning a Tesla because it doesn’t advertise? Simply put, no. More people in Q1, 66% of deliveries were to people who never had a Tesla before
16:51 CDT: Optimus accessories question gets a chuckle from Musk and Co. No real update given by the team.
16:49 CDT: Musk says NVIDIA’s execution is “impressive” as he talks about Dojo. More effort on Dojo is needed to ensure training capability needed, Musk says. “We do see a path to being competitive with NVIDIA with Dojo,” he adds. “We kind of have no choice because the demand for NVIDIA is so high; it’s obviously their obligation to raise the price of GPUs to whatever the market will bear…We’ve really got to make Dojo work, and we will.”
16:47 CDT: A question regarding the 4680 production cell ramp yields Tesla to reveal 51 percent more cell production in Q2 than Q1. More than 1400 Cybertrucks worth of 4680 cells each week. The first validation Cybertruck with the dry-cathode process has been built. Tesla says it’s on track to launch dry-cathode in Q4, lowering costs for widespread cell production.
16:42 CDT – Tesla’s CFO takes the stage. Like Musk, he also extended his thanks to Tesla’s team for pulling through in the second quarter. The executive highlighted that Tesla is offering extremely competitive finance rates worldwide, so the best time to buy a Tesla is right now.
He also emphasized the fact that Tesla’s vehicles are the most American cars on the market today. “We pride ourselves as a company with the most American-made cars.” He also noted that “Our focus is to provide the most compelling products at the most competitve price.”
16:39 CDT – The CEO noted that the Tesla Robotaxi is now planned for an unveiling on October 20. The delay in the vehicle’s unveiling is due to changes that he asked for the vehicle.
As for Optimus, Tesla expects several thousands of humanoid robots produced and performing useful tasks at the company’s facilities by next year. Optimus Version 1 will start limited production by next year, Musk estimated.
Musk also highlighted that Tesla Energy is growing at an incredible pace. Tesla Energy may also double or triple production with both the company’s Lathrop and Shanghai Megafactories.
16:35 CDT – Elon Musk takes the stage for his opening remarks. He acknowledges that there is now more competition in EV market. He also noted that competitors have rolled out discounts on EV prices, which has been a bit challenging for Tesla — but not in the long term.
Despite these challenges, Musk thanked the Tesla team for achieving record revenues this past quarter. The CEO noted that Tesla would not get too deep into its product road map in the earnings call, though he did note that a more affordable model unveiling is expected in the first half of 2025.
Musk also highlighted that FSD is seeing a lot of progress, with version 12.5 having 5x the parameters of 12.4. He encourages Tesla owners to try out FSD. “Full Self-Driving will be a massive demand driver,” Musk said.
16:30 CDT – Tesla’s Q2 2024 earnings call begins — on time(!) The company’s new IR Head takes the stage. Elon Musk and other Tesla executives are present.
16:26 CDT – And the music starts. Here we go! Or rather, the actual waiting starts now.
16:20 CDT – Tesla stock is down 4.27% as of writing. This is not a small drop by any means, though it is more tempered than the drops from previous quarters. As per Barron’s, Tesla shares have moved an average of 11% over the past four quarterly reports.
16:15 CDT – Hello, everyone, and welcome to our live blog of Tesla’s second quarter 2024 earnings call. Tesla’s second quarter results are quite mixed, with the company beating estimates for revenue but falling short of expectations in earnings per share. Tesla also reported $1.6 billion GAAP operating income in Q2 after restructuring charges of $600 million. Elon Musk and Tesla’s other executives would likely provide some context on the company’s Q2 results in the upcoming earnings call.
Here’s the livestream of Tesla’s Q2 2024 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’s flying Roadster just revealed something bigger than the car
Analysts say the Roadster demo puts a Tesla and SpaceX merger back on the table.
The Roadster unveiling near Waco ended Thursday night, and by Friday morning much of the investor reaction had less to do with the car than with who owns the rocket technology inside it.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the event “puts the Tesla/SpaceX relationship on the table in a tangible way,” pointing to the propulsion, pressure vessel and control hardware sitting on a Tesla product. Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management called the demo “a ridiculous display of engineering” with “no commercial value” beyond embarrassing traditional automakers, though he said it showed Musk wants the two companies together.
The more specific forecast came a day earlier from Barclays. Analyst Dan Levy told clients a deal could be announced before Tesla’s annual meeting, which must happen by December 6, and that an announcement in late October or early November could make shareholder approval harder. Barclays expects SpaceX to be the buyer in an all stock deal, with Tesla holders receiving SpaceX shares at a premium, based on market values of roughly $2.1 trillion for SpaceX and $1.5 trillion for Tesla. If nothing lands around the meeting, the bank still sees an announcement within 6 to 12 months.
The Roadster demo just added more weight to merger speculations. Tesla’s demo used cold gas thrusters and pressure tanks of the kind SpaceX uses on Falcon 9, and Musk described the car as a collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX engineers, as we mentioned in our breakdown of the three Roadster configurations.
Musk has not publicly addressed a deal since the event, as far as we have seen. His most direct answer remains the one he gave at the All In Summit, when he said that with so much collaboration, “who can imagine what action one might take” without ruling anything out. Ives has held to a 2027 timeline since his March note, and Musk pushed back on the China piece of the speculation when ARK floated a year end announcement in August.
The next test is Tesla’s third quarter earnings call on October 21. However, we recall in July that Musk told analysts, “we can’t talk about combining companies and that kind of thing on an earnings call,” so a clear answer wouldn’t be expected.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk breaks his silence on the Starlink impact to Ukraine drones
Musk says the US military and president set Starshield limits, not SpaceX, amid Ukraine complaints.
Elon Musk says the speed limit cutting out Ukraine’s military Starlink terminals is not SpaceX’s decision. In a post on X Wednesday, Musk wrote that “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” He added that Starlink is a commercial service limited to civilian or defensive activities and “cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”
He was replying to Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s former defense minister, who had thanked Musk for restoring connectivity at speeds up to 160 km/h and said removing the Starshield limit entirely is “now critical for Ukraine’s defense.”
Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.
Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 14, 2026
The complaint started Tuesday night, when Ukrainian officials said military terminals began losing service above roughly 100 mph. Presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said the defense forces got no warning and several missions were disrupted, as Teslarati reported earlier Wednesday. The 7th Rapid Reaction Corps told Reuters connections dropped for 10 to 20 seconds at speeds well below the limit, which made drones harder to control. Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, asked Musk on X whether he is “playing politics with your products again.”
That is why the Starlink and Starshield distinction matters. SpaceX introduced Starshield in 2022 as the government version of Starlink, with an initial focus on Earth observation, communications and hosted payloads. It won a Space Force contract in 2023 with a $70 million ceiling. In December 2024, the Pentagon moved Ukraine’s terminals onto Starshield, covering about 3,000 units across two contracts. Ukraine’s military connections therefore run through a service that Musk now says sits under Washington’s control.
While Musk’s post describes who holds authority, it does not infer that anyone ordered the limit, and neither SpaceX nor the US government has confirmed who set it. Ukrainian officials have pointed to the timing, which follows President Trump’s push for an energy ceasefire and Musk’s Saturday post that “Zelensky has gone too far.” The BBC noted Trump denied threatening to restrict intelligence sharing with Kyiv, and no evidence has been presented that Washington requested the cap.
The episode also revives a promise from 2025. After Poland accused him of threatening Ukraine’s access, Musk said Starlink “will never turn off its terminals” and would not be used as a bargaining chip. Poland has since supplied more than 29,000 terminals to Ukraine. Teslarati also covered Kyiv’s search for Starlink alternatives in 2025, and the latest dispute gives that search new urgency.
Investor's Corner
Tesla opens the Q&A for its biggest earnings call yet
Tesla opens its Q3 earnings Q&A, and Cybercab, Robotaxi, Optimus and regulators loom over October 21.
Tesla has opened its shareholder question portal for the Q3 2026 earnings call, with the Say Q&A page already listing questions. Investors have until 4:00 p.m. EDT on October 20 to submit and vote on what management should answer.
The call is set for Wednesday, October 21. Tesla will post results after the market closes, with a live webcast at 4:30 p.m. CT, or 5:30 p.m. ET, through its investor relations site.
Say ranks questions by the number of shares behind the votes, which gives institutional holders extra weight over the retail crowd.
Ahead of Q2, retail investors asked why Robotaxi growth had stalled, when Cybercab would start customer rides, and where the Optimus Gen 3 ramp stood, while an institutional holder asked how Tesla and SpaceX would split Terafab duties. Cybercab has since answered one of those. Tesla said last week it has 300 plus Cybercabs serving Austin, up eightfold in 30 days, with Dallas named as the next city. The questions now are likely to move from when to how fast.
There is also a regulatory question hanging over the call. NHTSA has demanded sworn answers on how the pedal free Cybercab was certified against federal safety standards, with responses due October 30, nine days after the call. Whether an analyst raises it live is unknown, but it is the kind of exposure that tends to find its way into a Q&A.
The numbers will not be the main draw. Tesla already reported 486,532 deliveries and 13.7 GWh of storage for the quarter. Consensus sits around 43 to 45 cents per share on roughly $27.8 billion in revenue, according to Zacks, after a Q2 report that missed on EPS. Goldman Sachs, which holds a Neutral rating and a $360 target, argues the outlook for Robotaxi, FSD and Optimus will matter more to the stock than the quarter itself.
The call also lands six days after the rescheduled Roadster event, which Tesla will stream on X on Thursday, October 15, at 7:55 p.m. CT. If the Roadster shows up with a production date or a SpaceX thruster package, expect it to climb the voting list before the deadline.
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