Tesla loses $408 million in Q2 2019

Enlarge / Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during an unveiling event for the Tesla Model Y crossover electric vehicle in Hawthorne, California, U.S., on Friday, March 15, 2019. (credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The second quarter of 2019 was banner one for Tesla in terms of building and delivering new electric vehicles. As it reported earlier in July, the company built 87,048 EVs and delivered 95,356 of them. However, the company lost $408 million over the same three months according to the latest earnings report. Although it’s the second loss-making quarter in a row, it’s still an improvement on Q1 2019.

Encouragingly, automotive revenue grew healthily compared to Q1. Tesla brought in $5.3 billion in this category, only $111 million of which was for selling emissions credits. Now that the Model 3 is on sale in several continents, and 77,634 were delivered to customers during the quarter, Tesla says that the majority of orders were for the long range Model 3. The company reports that the average sales price is around $50,000 and that manufacturing costs are declining. Tesla also reveals that, now that it has sold several hundred thousand cars on three continents, it is beginning to gain some insight into the mix of options its customers prefer.

Tesla says that all the equipment in the factory in Fremont, California has been tested at a run rate of 7,000 Model 3s a week. The company says it’s now aiming to build 10,000 cars a week by the end of 2019.