Tesla Cybertruck Hits 1,000-Unit Weekly Production Amid Q1 Financial Shortfalls

Tesla announced a milestone in Cybertruck production, achieving 1,000 units per week concurrently with reporting lower-than-expected financial results for Q1 2024. Despite missing revenue and earnings estimates, Tesla's stock surged post-announcement.

Tesla Achieves Production Milestone with 1,000 Cybertrucks Weekly, Despite Challenges and Recent Recall

According to Electrek, Tesla has issued a rare update on Cybertruck production, confirming the creation of 1,000 Cybertrucks in a week.

The carmaker has warned that the Cybertruck production ramp could be challenging because of its distinctive characteristics, such as the stainless-steel body. Tesla began production in November 2023 and has not released an update on output since.

The source did obtain significant information last week when Tesla was forced to recall all Cybertrucks manufactured on April 25th. This showed that the company had built just over 3,800 Cybertrucks to date.

With the release of its Q1 2024 financial results on April 24, Tesla provided an update on Cybertruck production. First on the shareholder deck:

“The Cybertruck ramp continued successfully at Gigafactory Texas, with a sequential cost improvement in Q1. We produced over 1,000 Cybertrucks in a single week in April.”

It is crucial to note that while Tesla reported a production rate of 1,000 Cybertrucks in a week in April, this does not imply that the manufacturer can maintain it; otherwise, it would have published that.

Lars Moravy, Tesla's Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, also explained briefly during the conference call following the release of the shareholders' deck:

Cybertruck was at 1,000 a week just a couple of weeks ago. This happened in the first four to five months since SOP (start of production) late last year. Of course, volume production is what matters.

“That’s what drives costs and so our costs are dropping, but the ramp still faces a lot of challenges with so many new technologies, some supplier limitations, etc., and continue to ramp this year, just focusing on cost efficiency and quality.”

Tesla also stated that its 4680-battery cell manufacture, which is used in Cybertruck, is not a bottleneck in the Cybertruck production ramp.

Tesla Misses Q1 Earnings Estimates, Shares Surge on AI Expansion and Strong Cash Reserves

Tesla issued its financial results and shareholder letter for the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 after the market closed on April 24.

As the source reported in Tesla Q1 2024 earnings preview on April 24, the Wall Street consensus for this quarter was $22.220 billion in sales and $0.49 per share.

Just after the market closed on April 24, Tesla announced its financial results, confirming that it missed estimates with earnings of $0.45 per share (non-GAAP) and revenue of $21,301 billion in the previous quarter.

Despite missing revenue and earnings estimates, typically the primary drivers of stock prices, Tesla's stock has risen by up to 8% in aftermarket trading following the release of the figures.

That's most likely due to Tesla's attempt to capitalize on the AI wave with the news release.

For example, the manufacturer said that it "increased AI training compute by more than 130% in Q1," which is astounding given that Tesla already had one of the world's largest supercomputers before the quarter.

Tesla's cash position decreased for the first time in a long time in the first quarter, although it still has a solid $26.9 billion cash pile.

“Quarter-end cash, cash equivalents, and investments in Q1 was $26.9B. The sequential decrease of $2.2B was a result of negative free cash flow of $2.5B, driven by an inventory increase of $2.7B and AI infrastructure capex of $1.0B in Q1," the company stated.

Photo: u/Kruzat, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons