Missed Tesla's Q2 Earnings Call? Read Our Bullet-Point Summary of Everything Announced

Not a Tesla App

Did you miss Tesla’s Earnings Call, or just want to see a summarized version? We’ve got you covered. Below is an outline of everything talked about during Tesla’s earnings call and Q&A session.

EV Market and Giga Factories

• Strong EV adoption, despite short-term challenges.

  • Positive long-term outlook

• Future vision for an all-electric future, including boats and planes.

• Possible vehicle tariffs for Mexico means that Giga Mexico is on hold.

• Giga Berlin could serve as a new export point as tariffs are placed on Chinese-built vehicles in Europe.

Production

• Affordable Tesla model expected to be revealed in the first half of 2025.

• Expansion of vehicle lineup, including new trims and paint options in 2024 has helped sales

• Cybertruck production has tripled so far – 1,400 per week, and ramping continues.

  • Expected to be profitable by the end of 2024.

• Model 3 and CT are still being impacted by tariffs as they scale up.

• 4680 cell production improvements

  • 51% more 4680 cells in Q2 over Q1, with a COGS reduction.

  • 1,400 CTs per week on 4680.

  • Tesla is reaching cost-parity with other cells by the end of 2024.

  • First Validation Cybertruck on dry-cathode process has been built and is being tested.

  • Production launch for dry-cathode process in Q4, should drive costs down by up to 50%.

• Tesla Semi factory on track for large-scale production by the end of 2025.

• Giga Berlin has begun producing and delivering RHD vehicles, including to the UK.

• Roadster engineering is complete and expected to see production sometime in 2025.

• Tesla’s guideline for production is 300mi on a single charge.

  • Tesla expects to expand its Supercharging network globally to meet this goal.

  • This seems to be the data-driven distance that Tesla has found most suitable for general driving uses.

FSD, Autonomy, AI

• Tesla continues to work towards unsupervised FSD. Aiming to see unsupervised FSD by the end of 2024, if not the end of 2025.

  • Elon has admitted he’s been overly optimistic in the past.

  • This new estimate is based on current trends in miles per intervention growth.

• Robotaxi event to take place on 10/10/2024.

  • Elon wanted to improve Robotaxi a bit more, and also show off “some other things”

• Tesla is looking to seek FSD approval with V12.5 or V12.6 in Europe, China, and other countries, hopefully by the end of the year.

• Tesla is in talks with multiple OEMs for FSD licensing.

  • OEMs will need 360* camera coverage, a gateway, and Tesla’s AI computers at minimum.

  • Tesla is looking for OEMs to produce over 1m vehicles per year.

  • Disclosure of an agreement will happen in conjunction with the signing OEM.

• Optimus is working in Tesla’s factories in a limited capacity.

  • Limited initial production to begin at Giga Texas in early 2025.

  • Tesla expects to use V1 to iron out bugs internally.

  • V2 is expected through 2026 and will be sold to outside customers.

• Tesla will continue working on DOJO, as acquiring Nvidia GPUs is becoming more and more difficult.

  • Tesla aims to be competitive with Nvidia in the AI GPU space in the future.

• Tesla aims to launch distributed compute alongside its AI5 hardware (formerly HW5).

  • AI5 is expected to launch in late 2025 and be in mass production by early 2026.

  • Distributed compute could use about 100 hours of idle time per week to generate income.

• Grok in Tesla could be a thing of the future, Tesla has learned a lot from xAI.

  • A proposed shareholder vote on investing in xAI could happen soon.

Tesla’s Financial Performance in Q2 2024

• Record quarter for regulatory credits.

• High interest rates globally have impacted sales and revenue per unit.

  • Tesla has offset rates in the US through competitive financing rates and expects to continue this into Q3 2024.

• Service and Merchandise profits have improved incrementally this quarter.

• Energy Storage deployments doubled between Q1 to Q2, leading to record revenue and profits.

• Tesla has a positive cash flow of $1.3 billion after restructuring this year.

  • Restructuring cost approximately $622m

  • Total free cash float of $30B.

• Capital expenditures of approximately $10B this year but beginning to come down.

  • This includes the money already spent on the new AI supercomputer cluster.

Energy Storage and Deployment

• Tesla’s Megapack factory production continues to ramp up, new Shanghai Megafactory is well in progress.

  • After the completion, current production is expected to double or triple.

  • Tesla is currently constrained by production.

• Powerwall 3 is now available in multiple countries, and demand is exceptionally high.

• There is a long pipeline between purchase and delivery for Megapack, Tesla has good pricing leverage and is working with global energy providers.

• Chinese OEMs are competitive, but Tesla offers a full software stack, including Auto Bidder with its Megapacks.

• New Megapack demand lines:

  • Buffer for power plants – Megapack can buffer power plants so they can run at a steady state, improving power production and efficiency by 2-3x.

  • AI and Data Center backup – AI compute is power-hungry, and data centers are now looking to Megapack to provide battery backup.

Watch Earnings Call

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Tesla to Allow Drivers to Display License Plates in Vehicle Visualization

Rendering of what Tesla's license plate feature could look like

Not a Tesla App

Tesla update 2024.38 has started rolling out to several regions and vehicles. Thanks to Tesla hacker Greentheonly, we have a behind-the-scenes look at some new features coming to Teslas.

License Plate Display

According to Greentheonly, it looks like Tesla may soon let you display your actual license plate in the vehicle’s visualization on the screen. In our article, The Most Request Tesla Features, several readers suggested displaying the vehicle’s license plate in the visualization instead of a blank, white plate.

It looks like Tesla will be doing just that, at least in China. Green found references that appear to conclude that you’ll be able to display your vehicle’s plate on screen. This will likely be user input, so you could have it say anything you’d like, and it doesn’t have to be your actual license plate.

For many owners, who may find it difficult to remember their license plate, this could serve a practical purpose in addition to adding to the visualization's realism.

While Green was only able to say it’ll be available in China, we expect this is due to China’s software development team working on it and that it’ll eventually be released worldwide.

We’ve seen several features originally released in China and later applied to everyone. Some of these include the Air Quality Index display, the trip meter that displays traffic along your route, and even the ability to change your vehicle’s color.

While code for this feature was found in update 2024.38, we may not be turned on in China yet. We suspect this feature may be a strong candidate for Tesla’s upcoming holiday update.

FSD Hardware Version Display

As part of the 2024.38 update, Tesla has now made it easy to determine whether your vehicle includes Hardware 3 or Hardware 4. You can now simply navigate to Controls > Software and tap Additional Vehicle Information. In addition to other hardware information about your vehicle, your Autopilot hardware version will now be listed as well.

You can see whether your vehicle has HW2.5, HW3, or AI4. This in-car display is useful, but if you don’t have access to the vehicle, you can always use our guide on how to determine the hardware version of a Tesla.

New Battery Health Test & Service Mode Improvements

Green found some additional things as well. There’s a new and improved Battery Health Test. The new test will show you how your car scores compared to similar vehicles in the Tesla fleet.

In addition, maintenance records can now be permanently stored “in the car.” It doesn’t appear that this feature is activated yet, but it’s likely in active development with some parts leaking out in the 2024.38 update.

Tesla has included various Service Mode improvements and new visualizations in this update.

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Leaked Images of the Tesla Model Y Juniper Refresh

Mr Li on X

It’s been a while since we saw the last batch of leaked images of the Model Y Juniper refresh. That inspiring photo, alongside other images, set the blood of many concept artists on fire. We saw a ton of awesome concepts of Project Juniper, and now there are even more leaked images.

Mr Li on X came across some covered-up Project Juniper vehicles recently and he managed to get various shots of the vehicle.

Juniper Images

This front image reveals what looks like two rows of lights, possibly confirming the front light bar for the Model Y refresh — similar to the one on the Cybercab.

The rear side has a lot of lights on it!

Mr Li on X

The rear side shows a ton of brake lights, but it’s not clear why. While it looks like the Model Y refresh will also feature a rear light bar similar to the Cybertruck, there isn’t strong evidence of that in this photo.

Mr Li on X

There's an obvious set of lights at the bottom, so it looks like the Model Y refresh will be similar to the new Model 3 where the bottom lights can operate as brake lights when the one-piece tail lights and trunk are up.

Mr Li on X

In the last photo, we see that the overall form factor of the refreshed Model Y will remain unchanged, and Tesla is focusing the changes on the front and rear ends of the vehicle, much like the Model 3 refresh. However, in this one shot, we can also see what appears to be red light leaking out of the rear camera cover opening, possibly due to the rear light bar.

The Model Y is not only Tesla’s best-selling vehicle but also the world’s best-selling car in 2023. This year, it’s expected to be the best-selling vehicle in the United States and again in the world, so this refresh will be huge for Tesla.

We expect most of the interior to remain the same as the Model 3 refresh, which saw substantial improvements in quality, noise reduction, and performance. Check out our wishlist of more things we hope to see in the Model Y refresh.

Dominic’s Concept

Dominic's Concept, in all its glory.

@DominicBRNKMN on X

@DominicBRNKMN made another fantastic set of concepts based on these new images. Given he had the most accurate Model 3 Highland concept before the official launch, we’re pretty sure his latest work be close here as well.

@DominicBRNKMN

We’re super excited to see the eventual reveal of Project Juniper, which is expected in the first half of 2025. However, expect to see a few more leaks before production kicks off at Giga Shanghai.

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