I particularly liked one of the callins, stating they appreciate it when he teases the trolls (tormenting fake news shorters) .
love it, this guy is a certified genius. there is no one on his level, especially in the financial world, and that is why they don't understand him.
The loss was slightly higher than expected, not lower. Available cash which is more key than Q2 loss was higher than expected. Revenue was slightly higher than expected. Those things put the stock up 5% after hours. What sent it up to 340 (another 8%) was the commentary. Musk apologized for some of his statements at the last quarter, which were out of line. He answered questions about the future which were better than expected. They are further along on labor reduction per car, and talked about these sprints and the "tent" as a learning experience and expect it to be incorporated into production and new real factories. Other good news they expect to be profitable and cash flow positive most quarters from now on, but he left himself some wiggle room. They are expecting autopilot version 9 out this month with many improvements including some self driving features, but admitted that to self drive accross the country now they would have to cheat and pick routes, they are still hoping software will be there by the end of the year. This is major progress in autopilot, and some admission they were over promising in the past. Chinese factory will be built using Chinese investment, so they won't need the US capital markets for that. I don't know if its a good thing or bad, but it means the short thesis is wrong, and a crash of the stock will not stop tesla from continuing to grow rapidly.
I was unclear on this, the loss of cash (cash burn) was less than Wall Street expected. Yes, the quarterly loss was higher than estimates, although we could also assume Wall Street was betting on a greater quarterly loss. The short sellers probably were.
Here is the SEC filing: tsla-ex991_6.htm The video is an hour long summary. The written report has the meat: Tesla Second Quarter 2018 Update Q2 Automotive gross margin increased to 20.6% GAAP and 21.0% non-GAAP Model 3 gross margin turned slightly positive in Q2, expecting roughly 15% in Q3 Expecting to produce 50-55k Model 3s in Q3; deliveries should exceed that Major cost restructuring executed in Q2 $2.2B of cash and cash equivalents at Q2-end, expected to grow in Q3 and Q4 Capex (capital expenditure rjw) projection in 2018 adjusted to <$2.5B . . . In July 2018, Model 3 not only had the #1 market share position in its segment in the US, it outsold all other mid-sized premium sedans combined, accounting for 52% of the segment overall. The popularity of Model 3 is a true testament to the product. Based on trade-ins that we’ve received so far, we can see that the total addressable market for Model 3 is much larger than mid-sized premium sedans. We are drawing customers from many other segments, including non-premiums sedans and hatchbacks. Tesla is replacing the earlier 'reservation' system with with direct orders. This punctures the FUD about canceled reservations. Not stated, this also increases the down payment held by Tesla while vehicle production is scheduled which augments the existing $1,000 reservations. But it also means Tesla schedules production based on direct, identified customer demand . . . "build to order." "There were no ZEV credit sales in Q2 as compared to $50 million in Q1" and this means that market opportunity has evaporated for all Tesla competitors. It also ends another FUD claim about being supported by government regulations. Compared to what fuel cell vehicles are going through, a stark contrast. If you want to see Elon's brilliance, read the section "Cash Flow and Liquidity." I'm not going to quote it because it is so good in the original. He is the 'Spock' of car makers. Bob Wilson
