Tesla and Elon's Earnings Day Focused on Profitability and Artificial Intelligence.

On the same day as Tesla’s quarterly reports, the contentious CEO of the world’s leading electric vehicle maker, Elon Musk, will deliver updates.

It is expected that Tesla will release its financial numbers for the fourth quarter and the entire year after the market closes on Wednesday. During a webcast that starts at 5:30 p.m. ET, Tesla management will answer questions from analysts and individual investors.

Anomalies have marked Tesla’s quarterly reports and earnings calls since its June 2010 public debut. These unexpected developments owe a great deal to Musk. There will likely be more excitement than usual in Musk’s first earnings report after being appointed to the Trump administration.

For the year 2025, we will keep an eye on revenue, expenses, and suggestions. A 2.2% drop from 1.81 million units supplied in 2023 to 1.77 million units delivered in 2024 was revealed earlier this month by Tesla.

Tesla’s revenue will drop if its other operations can’t compensate.

Some optimistic indicators were presented by Tesla’s fourth-quarter 2025 delivery estimates. The company’s vehicle sales in the fourth quarter were 495,570, up 7% from the previous quarter and up about 2.28% from the same period in 2023.

Regardless, everyone involved will be keeping an eye on the finances and waiting for Musk to reveal their sales and profit predictions for 2025.

For example, we would like to know Musk’s thoughts on the recent executive order by President Trump that forbids the funding of projects started under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—projects that would have otherwise included financing for electric vehicle charging stations—and any other relevant information.

Without a doubt, we will be inquiring about any and all details pertaining to the creation of the Tesla Roadster, the Tesla Semi, and how the Superchargers network handles vehicles that are not Teslas.

Myths about robotaxis

But the main event will be Musk’s unveiling of his long-standing but never-realized plan to create fully driverless Tesla vehicles.

Following Musk’s declaration that Tesla was “absolutely committed to autonomy” last year, the business was forced to lay off approximately 10% of its worldwide worker. Because of this dedication, the stock price of the corporation has remained at an all-time high.

Before the call, it seems like it was the main worry. Musk posted a video on his X social media account on Wednesday morning, ostensibly showing that can drive its finished automobiles the distance of up to one mile to a delivery staging lot.

According to Bloomberg, Tesla has reportedly been in talks with Austin and adjacent Texas municipal officials about launching a self-driving service. Musk has promised that Tesla drivers in California and Texas will be able to call out autonomous cars before the end of the year.

Starting a robotaxi business in California is far more complicated than in other states. Waymo, which started with test vehicles, now owns the only commercial robotaxi fleet in the US. After that, they moved on to autonomous drives that relied on safety features before completely eliminating human drivers.

Given Texas’s obvious adoration for Musk, the Lone Star State is more inclined to let take risky shortcuts to accomplish Musk’s goals.

Going back on previous events

Those lofty goals won’t help the company’s already-uncertain 2024 bottom line reach its full potential. With total sales of $25.2 billion and profits of $2.2 billion, the company’s third quarter of 2024 was very similar to its comparable period in 2023.

How many elements from last year’s fourth quarter will this quarter replicate? Even though Tesla’s sales was $25.17 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, the business only managed a net profit of $7.9 billion when using GAAP as a foundation.

We paid off the valuation allowance on some deferred tax assets with this one-time non-cash tax benefit of $5.9 billion. With $2.06 billion in adjusted earnings and operating income for the fourth quarter of 2023, the company’s financial situation was more accurately portrayed.

Although the company’s revenue source was uncertain in 2024, it was able to use its competitors’ hesitation to switch to electric lineups into free money.

To offset the emissions from its vehicle fleet, Tesla sold $739 million worth of regulatory credits in the third quarter of last year. Compared to the $890 million the business made in the prior quarter, this was a very large amount. Still, like with many other parts of the Musk-Trump alliance, Tesla’s goals seem to conflict with the aims of the new administration.

Regardless of Trump’s claims that he plans to rescind California’s waiver—which allows the state to determine its own emission regulations—Tesla has depended on this free financing source to be successful. President Trump is currently criticizing Tesla for their use of multiple schemes to charge electric vehicles.

SOURCE: TC