Things at Tesla are worse than they appear | CNN Business
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How bad are things at Tesla? So bad that it would have lost money in the first three months of the year had it not been the sale of regulatory credits, credits that could be going away if the Trump administration gets its way on auto emissions rules.

Things are undoubtedly bad at Tesla. Its sales are dwindling. Its profits are plunging, as is its share price. There are regular protests outside its showrooms. The Cybertruck is a flop. And somehow, it’s actually a lot worse than that.

The 71% drop in net income it just reported may have been overshadowed by CEO Elon Musk’s announcement that he would be stepping back from his controversial duties at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But that drop is just one indication of serious financial sickness at the EV maker, problems brought on by falling sales for the first time in its history and falling prices for electric vehicles.

The bottom line problem at Tesla is its vanishing bottom line. A deeper look at its first quarter report shows it’s now losing money on what should be its ostensible reason for existence – selling cars.

It was only able to post a $409 million profit in the quarter thanks to the sale of $595 million worth of regulatory credits to other automakers.

But if the Trump administration gets its way, the company can kiss those regulatory credits keeping it in the black goodbye, too.

  • tfmAEnglish
    2·
    19 hours ago

    This stuff is highly regulated https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_self-driving_cars

    Mercedes has the first autonomous car (L3) you can buy, which you can only activate at low speeds on certain roads in Germany. It’s only possible because of Lidar sensors and when activated you are legally allowed to look at your phone as long as you can take over in 10 or so seconds.

    You aren’t allowed to do this in a Tesla, since the government doesn’t categorize Teslas as autonomous vehicles which requires L3+.

    No car manufacturer can sell real autonomous vehicles without government approval. Tesla FSD is just Marketing bs. Others are far ahead in terms of autonomous driving tech.