Tesla’s revenue and profits tank amid political chaos

Tesla released its first quarter financial earnings today, offering another peak into the crisis currently enveloping Elon Musk’s company. 

Tesla said it earned $409 million in net income on $19.3 billion in revenue. That’s below Wall Street expectations of $21.1 billion and represents a 9.4 percent decrease year over year compared to $21.3 billion in revenue in Q1 2024. The company’s profits also slid dramatically, logging a 71 decrease in net income for the first quarter. And Tesla’s automotive revenue — the money is earns from car sales — slid 20 percent year over year, from $17.4 billion in Q1 2024 to $13.9 billion in this most recent quarter. The sale of $595 million in regulatory credits once again buoyed Tesla’s finances — without which the company would have had to report a year over year loss.

In a letter to shareholders, Tesla acknowledged that tariffs, as well as “changing political sentiment,” will continue to complicate efforts to grow out of its current rut.

“Uncertainty 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 our peers,” Tesla said. “This dynamic, along with changing political sentiment, could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near-term.”

Tesla was expected to be largely insulated from tariffs, thanks to its domestic supply chain. But the company says that its energy business, which includes solar panels and home battery products, will be hurt by the Trump administration’s trade war. “While the current tariff landscape will have a relatively larger impact on our Energy business compared to automotive, we are taking actions to stabilize the business in the medium to long-term and focus on maintaining its health,” the company wrote.

In January, Tesla predicted that its sales would grow in 2025, but didn’t specify by how much. Now the company is rethinking that guidance and will update it after next quarter:

It is difficult to measure the impacts of shifting global trade policy on the automotive and energy supply chains, our cost structure and demand for durable goods and related services. While we are making prudent investments that will set up both our vehicle and energy businesses for growth, the rate of growth this year will depend on a variety of factors, including the rate of acceleration of our autonomy efforts, production ramp at our factories and the broader macroeconomic environment. We will revisit our 2025 guidance in our Q2 update.

It wasn’t all bad news: Tesla’s gross margins, 16.3 percent in the first quarter, came in above analysts’ expectations of 15.82%, according to estimates compiled by LSEG, Reuters reports.

The earnings comes on the heels of Tesla’s worst quarterly sales report in three years. The company said it delivered a total of 336,681 vehicles, a 12.9 percent decline compared to Q1 2024. (For a direct-to-consumer company like Tesla, deliveries are a proxy for sales.)

After years of exponential growth, the sudden reversal in Tesla’s fortune has left many investors and supporters with whiplash. Tesla now serves as a sobering example of what happens when a company is left on autopilot (or Autopilot, as it were) while its high-profile CEO gets distracted by questionable side projects. 

The sudden reversal in Tesla’s fortune has left many investors and supporters with whiplash

Tesla’s current troubles can be traced back to Musk’s position with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a specious effort to cut “waste and fraud” in the government that appears mostly aimed at eliminating humanitarian aid programs, cancelling critical scientific research, and terrorizing federal workers. He has also amplified racist and antisemitic theories on social media, attacked trans people (including his own daughter), and made a fascist salute during Trump’s inauguration. Tesla’s shares are down over 37 percent year-to-date, as investors beg Musk to put aside his political activities and refocus his attention on his primary company. 

Meanwhile, Musk’s antics have spawned a nationwide protest movement called Tesla Takedown, aimed at boycotting the company and driving down its stock price. And it appears to be successful in persuading many progressive Tesla owners to sell their vehicles, despite steep drops in used car values.

There have also been an unrelated spate of violent attacks on Tesla stores and vehicles around the world, including several cases of arson and vandalism. President Donald Trump has said suspects caught defacing Tesla vehicles would be charged with “domestic terrorism.”

Musk is pinning his hopes on AI, robotics, and self-driving cars, which he argues will propel Tesla to new financial heights. He claims the company will launch an “unsupervised” robotaxi pilot in Austin, Texas, in June. But his past promises about autonomous driving have failed to come true. And experts have questioned Tesla’s approach to the technology, pointing to dozens of fatal crashes that have occurred involving the company’s partially automated features.

But the company’s on-again, off-again pursuit of a lower cost EV is what best exemplifies Tesla’s off-the-rails moment. For years, Musk has been promising an affordable electric vehicle, likely priced at $25,000, as a way to broaden the appeal of plug-in vehicles. But instead the company spent precious resources on the polarizing, unpopular Cybertruck. And now recent reports suggest that Tesla’s efforts to build a more affordable Model Y — its most popular model — is significantly delayed. 

The company reaffirmed its plans for new affordable models in the first half of 2025, noting in the shareholder letter that the changeover to the new assembly line for the refreshed Model Y also included prep for new vehicles later this year. “Given economic uncertainty resulting from changing trade policy, more affordable options are as critical as ever,” the company wrote.

Musk and his executive team are expected to address all these issues and more in a call with investors at 5:30 pm ET. Tesla also said it would host a “live company update” including a question and answer session, in another sign that the company sees this moment as particularly fraught. You can listen here.