{"id":41358,"date":"2025-04-22T18:50:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T23:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41358"},"modified":"2025-04-22T22:26:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T03:26:23","slug":"tesla-earnings-plunge-71-percent-in-first-quarter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41358","title":{"rendered":"Tesla earnings plunge 71 percent in first quarter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tesla\u2019s quarterly earnings dropped by 71 percent, the company announced Monday, marking the latest sign of bad news for Elon Musk\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>electric vehicle manufacturer as scrutiny of the tech billionaire persists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The electric vehicle company reported a 9 percent decline in revenue for the first three months of this year. Its earnings totaled $409 million, down from $1.4 billion in the first quarter of last year, the company said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla\u2019s stock closed Tuesday afternoon at $238 a share, a nearly 37 percent drop from the beginning of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers, which fall far below analysts\u2019 expectations, come amid mounting scrutiny of Musk over his leadership of President Trump\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency\u201d cost-cutting initiative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk acknowledged the blowback on Tuesday evening\u2019s earnings call, but doubled down on the mission of DOGE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe the right thing here is to just fight the waste and fraud and get the country back on the right track and working together with President Trump and his administration, because if the ship of America goes down, we all go down with it, including Tesla and everyone else,\u201d Musk told investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerns were raised in recent weeks that Musk is spending too much time on DOGE and not enough on Tesla amid an unstable period for the company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He tried to appease these concerns on Tuesday, telling investors that starting next month, he will be allocating \u201cfar more of my time to Tesla now that the major work of establishing\u201d DOGE is \u201cdone.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStarting probably next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,\u201d Musk said. \u201cI\u2019ll have to continue doing it for, I think, the remainder of the president\u2019s term just to make sure that the waste and fraud doesn\u2019t come roaring back, which we\u2019ll do, if it has the chance.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tech billionaire said he will likely spend one to two days of the week on \u201cgovernment matters\u201d for \u201cas long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it is useful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company made clear on Tuesday it is dealing with the ripple effects of the U.S.\u2019s ongoing tariff war with other countries, notably including China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it was speculated that Tesla might avoid the brunt of Trump\u2019s tariffs due to its focus on domestic production, the company emphasized it is not immune to retaliatory tariffs from other nations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUncertainty in the automotive and energy markets continues to increase as rapidly evolving trade policy adversely impacts the global supply chain and cost structure of Tesla and peers,\u201d the company wrote in the Q1 2025 report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis dynamic, along with changing political sentiment, could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near-term,\u201d Tesla added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk emphasized Trump\u2019s moves on tariffs are entirely up to the president, but that he will advocate for lower tariffs, calling it generally a \u201cgood idea for prosperity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday\u2019s full financial report comes after Tesla revealed earlier this month<\/u><\/a> its first-quarter sales dropped nearly 13 percent. The company reported 336,000 vehicle deliveries in the January to March quarter, a notable dip from the 387,000 vehicles in the same period a year ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla\u2019s stock plummeted nearly 50 percent since late December as Musk helped carry out DOGE\u2019s efforts, which included mass layoffs at some federal agencies and the gutting of some funding programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some took out their frustrations on Tesla and company showrooms across the country dealt with peaceful and some violent demonstrations, including arson attacks, vandalism and shootings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of the earnings call, a group of eight state treasurers wrote to Tesla\u2019s board of directors, voicing concerns about Musk\u2019s leadership of the electric vehicle manufacturer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMusk continues to divide his attention across multiple companies and a high-profile advisory role within the federal government,\u201d the letter to Robyn Denholm, chair of Tesla\u2019s board, stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese external commitments raise serious questions about whether Tesla\u2019s leadership is fully engaged in addressing the company\u2019s core challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the escalating trade war earlier this month, Tesla suspended new orders<\/u><\/a> of two models on its Chinese website Beijing raised tariffs on American goods to 125 percent in the country\u2019s ongoing trade fight with the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company did not provide a reason for suspending the orders, though analysts suggested the move showed the tight spot Musk and Tesla are in amid the trade fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company emphasized on Tuesday it is still expanding its business model to include autonomous robots and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven products amid the uncertain automotive market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAI is a major pillar of growth for Tesla and the broader economy and key to our pursuit of sustainable abundance,\u201d the company wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk told investors he remains \u201cextremely optimistic\u201d about the future of the company, arguing it is not the first time Tesla has faced challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI continue to believe that Tesla, with excellent execution, will be the most valuable company in the world by far,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tesla\u2019s quarterly earnings dropped by 71 percent, the company announced Monday, marking the latest sign of bad news for Elon Musk\u2019s\u2002electric vehicle manufacturer as scrutiny of the tech billionaire persists.  The electric vehicle company reported a 9 percent decline in revenue for the first three months of this year. Its earnings totaled $409 million, down from $1.4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":41359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1155],"tags":[26611,6124,1362],"class_list":["post-41358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-earnings","tag-plunge","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41360,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41358\/revisions\/41360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}