Tesla earns less despite rising sales
Tesla posted a smaller profit in the second quarter than a year earlier, even though the carmaker again sold more vehicles. Price cuts, high spending and a business in carbon credits diminished by Trump weighed on results. The stock fell after hours; Musk is betting increasingly on robotaxis and AI.
Tesla's quarterly results are mixed. The liberal Zeit (Germany) stresses that the company is grappling with high spending and a carbon-credit business diminished by Trump, and that only revenue came in better than expected. The conservative FAZ emphasizes that Tesla is again finding more buyers and making progress on robotaxis, but that the financial picture remains mixed. The left-liberal Guardian (United Kingdom) and the New York Times (US) point to falling profits despite rising revenue and a share-price drop of more than three percent after the close, because earnings per share missed expectations. The sources agree that Elon Musk is increasingly positioning the company as a robotics and AI firm and that higher research spending is eating into the profit from car sales. What remains disputed is above all the assessment of whether the transformation justifies the weaker earnings picture. It is considered fact: more cars, less profit.