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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On today’s episode of Quick Charge, I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I’d like to remind them that, as a trusted media personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves cobalt mines.
We’ve also got the world’s quickest police pursuit vehicle, an Amnesty International report highlighting Tesla and Mercedes’ efforts to improve worker conditions in the Congo, and an exploration of Trump voters’ love for solar power.
Today’s episode is sponsored by BLUETTI, a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems. For a limited time, save up to 50% during BLUETTI’s exclusive Black Friday pre-sale, now through November 11. Learn more by clicking here.
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Donald Trump will push fossil fuels and undo renewable energy policies, but it ultimately won’t stop clean energy’s momentum.
Trump has always pushed for more oil drilling and fewer regulations, left the Paris Agreement in his first term as president, says he hates “windmills,” promised to scrap offshore wind on “day one” if he won the 2024 election, and calls climate change a “scam.” And now that he’s won, this is a direct threat to the US’s pledge to reach net zero by 2050. After all, federal policy directly impacts the pace of renewable energy growth, especially when it comes to incentives and research funding.
The Biden administration’s groundbreaking Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which has spurred a clean energy boom, will be challenged under Trump. Because Republican states have received 80% of the IRA’s money with which they’ve built factories and created thousands of jobs, a complete IRA repeal is unlikely. What’s more probable is that the Republicans phase out tax credits earlier than planned or cap overall funding.
Federal financial support for innovative technologies and projects could also take a hit. Brendan Bell, COO of Aligned Climate Capital, who formerly led the US Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, told Electrek:
My partner Peter and I led the DOE Loan Program Office under President Obama. We supported the first utility-scale solar and storage projects, as well as early EV investments – including the first loan to Tesla.
Today, these technologies are commercialized and are propelling the clean energy transition. None of it would have been possible if these programs had been cut off 10 years ago.
Put simply, Trump can’t turn back the tide of clean energy – but he could delay tomorrow’s solutions and the birth of new industries.
BloombergNEF’s “2H 2024 US Clean Energy Market Outlook,” released at the end of October, examined the worst-case scenario, where control of both the Senate and the House leads to a full repeal of the IRA tax credits:
The wind, solar, and energy storage sectors jointly see a 17% drop in total new capacity additions over 2025-2035, with 927 gigawatts (GW) of cumulative build compared to 1,118GW in BNEF’s base case forecast. Wind sees the greatest fall in activity in this scenario with a 35% drop, followed by energy storage at 15% and solar at 13% relative to BNEF’s base case.
That’s a blow we can’t afford at a time when we need to reduce emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030 to avoid climate disasters becoming even worse than they already are.
But all is not lost. The clean energy market isn’t solely driven by federal policy. Over the last decade, solar, wind, and EVs have become more cost-competitive and popular. State policies play a huge role too, and many states are committed to their own clean energy goals regardless of who sits in the White House. States like California, New York, and Washington have ambitious targets to combat climate change, and deep red Texas is No. 1 in the US for both solar and wind.
Corporations are also key players. Companies like Amazon, Google, and Walmart have committed to going 100% renewable, and they’re not about to reverse course. This demand keeps the market for renewables strong. Plus, there’s significant public support for clean energy jobs, and renewables create more employment opportunities than fossil fuels in many regions of the country.
JD Dillon, chief marketing officer of California-based solar tech manufacturer Tigo Energy (Nasdaq: TYGO), said to Electrek, “The march toward renewable clean energy is both inevitable and the right thing to do. In a perfect world, we would eliminate partisanship from the renewable energy conversation because everyone benefits from a cleaner environment and affordable energy. Unfortunately, none of us live in said perfect world.”
The US clean energy sector may slow down, but it’s hard to stop a train that has already left the station. What consequences this slower-moving train will have for the US and the world remains to be seen.
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The world’s largest EV battery maker is advancing a new type of battery, promising higher energy density. According to a new local report, CATL is investing heavily while ramping up its workforce to bring all-solid-state EV batteries to market.
With trial production reportedly kicking off, we could see CATL launch all-solid-state EV batteries sooner than expected.
According to a new local report from LatePost (via CnEVPost), CATL has entered the trial production phase of 20 Ah samples. The news comes after the EV battery giant added over 1,000 workers to its R&D team this year.
The report claimed that CATL is now focused on the final Sulfide phase and has already commenced trial production of 20 Ah samples.
The company’s solution has an energy density of up to 500 Wh/kg for lithium ternary batteries, 40% more than current batteries. However, the report said charging speed and cycle life are not quite where they need to be.
At 20 Ah, the battery solution is finalized and ready for its next stage, production tech exploration.
CATL is advancing all-solid-state EV batteries
The report says after that it’s mainly manufacturing hurdles, that can be overcome with a bigger workforce.
In April, CATL’s chief scientist, Wu Kai, announced that the company had developed a verification platform for 10 Ah all-solid-state EV battery cells. Wu also said CATL aimed to produce all-solid-state EV batteries in small volumes in 2027, the first time the news was made public.
In September, the company’s chairman, Robin Zeng, said CATL’s research into the new battery tech was “second to none.”
Several companies, including Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and others, are betting on solid-state EV batteries as the future.
According to data from CnEVPost, CATL is dominating the global EV battery market with a 36.7% share through September 2024.
China’s BYD is second with a 16.4% share of the market. BYD is also planning to launch solid-state batteries. At the September 2024 World New Energy Congress, BYD’s head scientist and engineer, Lian Yubo, said solid-state EV batteries could be widely used in five years.
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