Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Q3 2024 earnings call comes on the heels of the company’s Q3 2024 Update Letter, which was released after the closing bell on Wednesday, October 23, 2024.
Tesla posted total revenues of $25.18 billion, with automotive revenues of $20.02 billion in Q3 2024. The company also posted non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.72 and GAAP EPS of $0.62. Tesla posted $2.7 billion GAAP operating income in the third quarter, and a record $33.6 billion in cash.
The following are live updates from Tesla’s Q3 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.
Q3 2024 Earnings Call live at 4:30pm CT https://t.co/FLyk30QBLk— Tesla (@Tesla) October 23, 2024
17:38 CDT – And that’s a wrap for Tesla’s Q3 2024 earnings call! Thank you so much for tuning in. We’ll see you on the next event!
17:35 CDT – Adam Jonas from Morgan Stanley asks about the relationship between Tesla and xAI. Are the two companies working together, or are they competing? Elon Musk notes that xAI has been helpful to Tesla AI quite a number of times. Musk also highlighted that xAI is trying to make artificial general intelligence or superintelligence. Tesla is trying to make autonomous cars.
“Tesla is focused on real-world AI. It’s quite different from an LLM,” Musk said.
17:27 CDT – Elon Musk admitted that there is a chance HW3 vehicles would not achieve the necessary safety level for unsupervised FSD. If this were to be the case, Musk noted that Tesla would replace Hardware 3 with Hardware 4 free of charge, at least for those who purchased FSD.
“There is some chance that HW3 does not achieve a safety level that allows for unsupervised FSD. If that turns out to be the case, we will upgrade those two have bought HW3 FSD for free,” Musk said.
17:24 CDT – A question about the Roadster is asked. Musk admitted that the Roadster’s reservation holders have been suffering for a while. He adds that the Roadster is the cherry on top of the icing on the cake. He did, however, state that the Roadster would have to be behind some of the company’s more prudent products.
17:18 CDT – All of the Tesla Semi that have been deployed, around 200 so far, are equipped with the necessary equipment for FSD. Musk noted that FSD would be a huge step for safety for trucks.
Another question is asked about Unsupervised FSD’s deployment in CA next year. Elon Musk noted that California loves regulations, but he would be shocked if Tesla does not get approved next year. Companies like Waymo are able to deploy driverless cars in the state, after all.
Musk quipped that there should be a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles. “I think we should have this national approval process for autonomy,” Musk said.
17:13 CDT – Another question is asked about the Tesla Semi. Tesla executives noted that the facility is on track to start initial builds next year, with production ramping full blast in 2026. Musk noted that there is “ridiculous demand” for the Semi considering the vehicle’s extremely low cost per mile.
Tesla executives noted that the Semi’s potential is already being proven by clients like PepsiCo. PepsiCo’s drivers do not want to drive any other truck once they try out the Semi.
17:09 CDT – Musk highlighted that the Cybercab is technically a $25,000 car, but it is an autonomous car, not manually driven.
Another question is asked about alleviating wait times at service centers. Company executives highlighted that Tesla is still focused on making vehicles that require as little service as possible.
Tesla, however, is coming up with a system that is inspired by a factory, where there are different lanes that are dedicated to different types of repairs. Automation is also a huge priority.
17:05 CDT – Elon Musk highlighted that the Cybercab does not just feature revolutionary design. It also features revolutionary manufacturing. “It is just really something special,” Musk said.
17:03 CDT – Investor questions begin! First question is about the more affordable car. Tesla executives reiterated that plans are underway to produce more affordable cars in the first half of next year. This, however, likely involves lowering the cost of current vehicles.
As for the $25,000 non-Robotaxi car, executives highlighted that Tesla is all in on autonomy. So there are no plans to produce a non-autonomous version of the Cybercab.
17:00 CDT – The CFO highlighted Tesla Energy’s margins, which passed 30% in Q3. This was due to a mix of projects during the quarter. He also noted that Tesla Energy is already filling in its 2024 production slots.
Tesla’s operating expenses declined quarter over quarter and year over year, partly due to the company’s restructuring, which happened in Q2.
16:58 CDT – Tesla’s CFO takes the stage. He noted that Tesla’s automotive revenues grew quarter over quarter and year over year. Tesla’s sales grew despite ASPs dropping.
He notes that Tesla is determined to grow unit volume while avoiding a buildup of inventory. To support this strategy, Tesla is rolling out compelling financing options that make its vehicles more attainable to consumers.
Automotive margins improved quarter over quarter as well. The executive also highlighted that Tesla is focused on the cost per vehicle, and there are numerous work streams within the company to squeeze that cost without compromising on customer experience.
16:53 CDT – Elon Musk noted that progress is being made in the Optimus program. He mentioned Optimus’ next-generation hand, which features 22 degrees of freedom.
“I feel confident saying that we have the most advanced humanoid robot by a long shot,” Musk said, adding that rival robots are missing the AI brain, if not the ability to produce the robots at very high volumes. Tesla has both, so the company’s potential to lead the sector is notable.
““I think Optimus will be the most valuable part of Tesla,” Musk said.
Musk also discussed Tesla Energy, particularly its Megafactories. He noted that Lathrop is ramped, and Shanghai is progressing well. “It won’t be long before we’re sipping 100 GWh a year of stationary storage at Tesla,” Musk said. Musk noted that Tesla needs its energy business to scale so the company can move the needle in the energy sector.
16:48 CDT – Elon Musk reiterated Tesla’s target of rolling out a ride-hailing service next year in California and Texas next year depending on regulatory approval.
He also noted that Tesla is no longer training compute-constrained. “The FSD is actually getting so good that it takes us a while to find mistakes. It takes a lot to figure out if Software A is better than Software B, since neither one of them are making mistakes,” Musk said.
16:46 CDT – Musk noted that Tesla’s internal estimate is that FSD would be safer than a human driver by Q2 next year.
“There’s no need to wait for the Robotaxi or the Cybercab to experience full autonomy. We expect to achieve that next year, with our existing vehicle line,” Musk said. He also noted that Tesla employees in the Bay Area now have an autonomous ride-hailing service. The service still uses safety drivers, though.
16:41 CDT – This does not mean to say that Tesla will not be relying on battery suppliers, of course. The growth of Tesla Energy and the company’s other businesses requires a lot of suppliers.
Musk also discussed the progress of FSD, such as the release of V12.5 and the Cybertruck’s FSD, as well as Actual Smart Summon (A.S.S.). He notes that FSD V13 is expected to be rolled out soon. V13 is expected to see 5-6x improvement in miles between interventions.
16:38 CDT – Musk noted that Tesla is still on track to deliver more affordable vehicles starting in the first half of 2025. “I do want to give some rough estimate, which is, I think, 20-30% growth next year,” Musk said. He also noted that he is “confident of Cybercab reaching volume production in 2026.” Tesla is estimating a production of 2 million Cybercabs per year.
Musk stated that the 4680 lines are doing well. Tesla’s 4680 is rapidly approaching the point where it os the most competitive cell in the market. “I think if we execute well, Tesla’s internally produced cell will be the most cost-competitive cell in North America,” Musk said.
16:35 CDT – Elon Musk makes his opening remarks. He gives a quick recap of Q3. He notes that Tesla achieved record deliveries at a time when the entire industry is challenged. “It’s notable that Tesla is profitable despite a very challenging automotive environment,” Musk said, highlighting that this quarter is a record Q3 for the company.
He notes that Tesla produced its 7 millionth car yesterday. He congratulates the Tesla team for pulling the feat off. Musk also stated that Tesla Energy is doing well. He also states that the “Tesla team did a phenomenal job” during the “We, Robot” event.
16:32 CDT – Tesla’s Head of Investor Relations opens the Q3 earnings call. Elon Musk and a number of executives are present.
Let’s go!
16:29 CDT – One minute to go! Let’s see if this call starts on time.
16:28 CDT – Tesla bull Gary Black of The Future Fund summarized the Q3 earnings results pretty well. It’s a beat.
$TSLA beat solidly on 3Q adj eps ($.72 vs $.60 est and vs my $.56 est). TSLA +9.4% AH. Driving the beat:
– Auto GM ex-reg credits was 17.1% vs 14.9% WS est.
– Energy profits soared +90% (energy GM 30.5% vs 24.4% YoY)
– Service profits soared +91% (services GM 8.8% vs 6.0% YoY)…— Gary Black (@garyblack00) October 23, 2024
16:25 CDT – It’s five minutes before the earnings call and there’s still no music. Oh, boy, I hope they start this one on time. No reason to be late anyway, since the Q3 results were extremely impressive. TSLA stock after hours is up 9.44% as of writing.
Aaand there’s Tesla’s techno music. We’re close, everyone.
16:15 CDT – Hello, everyone, and welcome to our live blog of Tesla’s third quarter 2024 earnings call. Tesla’s Q3 results are the best we’ve seen in a long time, so this upcoming earnings call will probably be pretty memorable. Especially impressive was the fact that the Cybertruck reached positive gross margin in the third quarter. That’s pretty nuts!
Here’s the livestream of Tesla’s Q3 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 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.
For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.
It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.
Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.
The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.
Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.
The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.
SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.
There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.
The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.
Tesla Optimus project fires up as Musk sees production line progress
Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’
