Tesla’s profits are now coming from things Elon Musk said he wouldn’t do
A significant part of Tesla’s growth in gross profit last quarter came from an increase in profits from servicing Tesla’s vehicles and selling energy through its Supercharger network – things Elon Musk said Tesla wouldn’t aim to make profits from.
Back in 2016, Elon Musk was quoted saying this at a Tesla event when defending the automaker’s strategy to operate its own service centers rather than using dealerships:
Our philosophy with respect to service is not to make a profit from service. I think that it’s terrible to make a profit on service.
Musk often criticized other automakers, specifically GM, for selling “cars that then need service” at dealerships and then making a lot of profits selling replacement parts to customers through those dealerships.
The CEO is often quoted saying, “The best service is no service,” and Tesla aims to improve service by increasing the reliability of its vehicles, resulting in less need for service.
Reality is quite different. Tesla owners are often experiencing long wait times to get service appointments at Tesla and how the automaker plans to address this situation was a top question during Tesla’s earnings call yesterday.
As for the Supercharger network, Musk also said that it would “never become a profit center” for Tesla.
The CEO always said that the goal was of the charging network was to be a service for Tesla owners, and now non-Tesla owners, with the goal of revinesting revenue into growing the capacity of the network.
Tesla’s reality is changing
Over the last two quarters, Tesla’s profits from “services and others” have surged.
For the last few years, Tesla’s services and others were only marginally profitable, which was in line with Musk’s previously stated strategy on that front, but something has changed.
With Tesla’s Q3 2024 financial results, the automaker that “services and others” gross profits jumped to almost $250 million – a 90% increase year-over-year:
Tesla is one of the most opaque automakers when it comes to breaking down its financials. It bundles many things into “services and others, ” making it hard to know exactly what is going on inside.
The bulk of that accounting line has historically been car service and used car sales, but in Tesla’s latest financial results, which saw an important increase in profits for “services and others”, the automaker confirmed that the surge was specifically due to its Supercharger network and service margins:
The Services and Other business achieved a record gross profit in Q3, growing over 90% year-on-year. Sequential growth in gross profit was driven mostly by higher gross profit generation from supercharging, service center margin improvement and higher gross profit generation from Parts Sales and Merchandise.
Now at $~250 million, it’s still a small part of Tesla’s overall gross profits, but it does account for a significant part of the ~$800 million increase in gross profits compared to last year.
Electrek’s Take
This is something that irritates me personally because I’ve used those quotes from Elon about service to counter the hesitation of many potential Tesla buyers regarding the maintenance and service of electric vehicles.
Elon’s statement reassured them, but if that was ever really the plan, it certainly isn’t anymore based on the latest results.
Tesla’s gross margins for service and selling replacement parts are surging, and Tesla is proudly saying it in its financial results.
Myself, I have two Tesla vehicles that need service right now and Tesla is trying to sell me very expensive parts.
As for Supercharger, prices are going up.
To be fair, Tesla making money on the Supercharger network is quite new and the company is just starting to sell more charging to non-Tesla EVs. It’s very possible that Tesla might need to adjust to keep the Supercharger just marginally profitable.
It’s just the fact that Tesla writes “sequential growth in gross profit was driven mostly by higher gross profit generation from supercharging,” it’s not super encouraging.
But in the meantime, some Supercharger stations are getting quite expensive. Hopefully, Tesla gets those prices into control
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Environment
U.S. could reach deal with Canada that avoids oil and gas tariffs, energy secretary says
HOUSTON — The U.S. could reach an agreement with Canada that avoids tariffs on imports of oil, gas and other energy resources, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Monday.
Wright said such a scenario is “certainly is possible” but “it’s too early to say” in response to a question from CNBC during a press conference at the CERAWeek by S&P Global. The U.S. is in “active dialogue” with Canada and Mexico, the energy secretary said.
President Donald Trump has paused until April 2 tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports that are compliant with the agreement which governs trade in North America. Trump originally imposed broad 25% tariffs on goods from both countries as well as lesser 10% tariffs on energy imports from Canada.
It’s unclear, however, how much of the oil, gas and other energy that the U.S. imports from Canada is compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Wright declined to provide specifics when CNBC asked how much of those imports are USMCA compliant.
“I’m going to avoid the details for now,” Wright said. The energy secretary said, “We can get to no tariffs or very low tariffs but it’s got to be reciprocal” in an interview with CNBC’s Brian Sullivan.
Canada’s energy minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, warned last week that energy prices will rise in the U.S. if the tariffs on energy imports go into full effect.
“We will see higher gasoline prices as a function of energy, higher electricity prices from hydroelectricity from Canada, higher home heating prices associated with natural gas that comes from Canada and higher automobile prices,” Wilkinson told CNBC’s Megan Cassella in an interview.
The U.S. has been the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world for years. But many refiners in the U.S. are dependent on heavy crude imported from Canada. The U.S. imported 6.6 million barrels of crude oil per day on average in December, more than 60% of which came from Canada, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Wright acknowledged that the tariffs are creating uncertainty in energy markets as negotiations continue.
“We’re in the middle of negotiations for where things are going to go with tariffs, so that feels frightening and gripping right now but this time will pass,” Wright said. “Deals will be made, we’ll get certainty and we’ll have a positive economic environment for Americans going forward.”
U.S. crude oil fell more than 1% Monday to close at $66.03 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent closed at $69.28 per barrel. Crude oil futures have pulled back substantially as Trump’s trade policy creates uncertainty and OPEC+ has confirmed that it plans to gradually bring back 2.2 million barrels per day of production beginning next month.
Apple is rolling out a notable update to Apple Maps EV Routing for Ford drivers. Starting today, Ford Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning drivers can use Apple Maps EV Routing via CarPlay to plan road trips that include Tesla Superchargers – or any station that uses the North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector.
As I’ve explained before, Ford began shipping adapters CCS to NACS adapters that allow Mach-E and Lightning drivers to charge at Tesla Superchargers last year. Until today, however, Apple Maps was unaware of this change. This meant Apple Maps EV Routing would only route Mach-E and Lightning drivers to CCS charging stations, even though a route with Tesla Superchargers might’ve been more efficient.
With today’s change, Apple Maps via CarPlay will now include NACS fast charging stations, such as compatible Tesla Superchargers, in recommended route planning recommendations.
In a blog post, Ford explains:
Apple Maps EV Routing in CarPlay allows drivers to input their route and can view the estimated battery level they will have when they get to a destination, as well as suggested charging stations along the way if charging is needed. Previously, Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning drivers would have to manually open another app, then enter a NACS fast charger as a destination to have it added to their route. Now, with the Apple Maps EV Routing and NACS fast charger integration, the experience will be more seamless.
How to Use Apple Maps EV Routing in CarPlay:
- Connect your Apple iPhone to CarPlay.
- Open Apple Maps, go to Settings, and confirm your preferred charging network(s) – make sure you select a NACS fast charging station, such as Tesla Supercharger. You only have to do this once.
- Enter a destination.
- Apple Maps will then calculate the estimated state of charge you will have when you get to a destination.
- If a charge is required, depending on the fastest route, it will automatically route you to a NACS fast charging station.*
This is a significant update to the Apple Maps EV Routing experience for Ford drivers. Next up on my wishlist is support for battery preconditioning when using Apple Maps EV Routing. Android Auto added this feature last October.
The new feature is available now to iPhone users running iOS 17 or later. No software update is required for your car.
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James Murdoch, a Tesla board member and friend of CEO Elon Musk, has confirmed that he sold about $13 million in stock today as the stock (TSLA) crashed.
There has been a lot of insider trading at Tesla lately, and by trading, we mean selling – cause no insider is ever buying at Tesla.
We recently reported on Kimball Musk, Elon’s brother, and Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer Taneja Vaibhav recently selling ahead of a recent drop in the company’s stock price.
Tesla’s chairwoman, Robyn Denholm, also sold $33 million worth of Tesla shares last week and over $100 million in the last 3 months.
Now, it’s James Murdoch’s turn. The Tesla board member just confirmed, through a required SEC filing, that he sold 54,776 Tesla shares for just over $13 million today:
He sold as Tesla’s stock crashed 15% today. It is now down more than 50% from its all-time high just a few months ago.
Murdoch was appointed to Tesla’s board in 2017.
He is better known as the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former CEO of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.
Murdoch was one of the Tesla board directors who was forced to return almost $1 billion in cash and stock options to Tesla as part of a settlement for over-compensation.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla insiders are unloading, and those are just the ones we know about. Public companies only have to report insider trading for board directors and listed top executives.
For the latter, Tesla purposefully only lists 3 people: Elon, Vaibhav Taneja, Tesla’s CFO, and Tom Zhu, whose role at Tesla has bit quite fluid in recent years.
Therefore, we don’t know about the dozens of other top executives potentially selling their shares right now amid a giant correction.
It’s really suspicious because there are clear top leaders at Tesla who are often on Tesla’s earnings calls, and they are not even listed, like Lars Moravy, for example.
But it’s par for the course at Tesla, which has some of the worst corporate governance I have ever seen. It’s truly shameful.
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