Tesla released the last quarter earnings of 2017 just two days after the company successfully launched the Falcon Heavy Rocket into space on February 6th. The revenue totaled $3.29 billion for the year, while the loss amounted to $1.96 billion, of which $675.4 million was of the last quarter. Tesla has managed to increase their revenue by about a billion dollars every year but continues to experience losses almost every quarter.
The company has been spending hefty amounts to build factories, amplifying production capabilities and creating new vehicles, which has diminished its Q4 earnings considerably, translating to the highest loss in Tesla’s history.
The California-based automaker has increased the sales of its zero-emission vehicles considerably. The 2016 Q4 sales of $20 million were increased 9-fold by the 2017’s last quarter to $179 million. A significant rise of $195 million was recorded in customer deposits, which went from $663 million to $858 million.
Tesla hopes to expand the production of Tesla Model 3 to 2,500 units by the end of 2018’s first quarter and 5,000 by Q2’s end. It is not entirely coherent how the company expects to achieve this. It said in the letter to investors, “while these are the levels we are focused on hitting and we have plans in place to achieve them, our prior experience on the Model 3 ramp has demonstrated the difficulty of accurately forecasting specific production rates at specific points in time.” The automaker confirmed in their address that some bottlenecks in the production exist, but these limitations were not specified.
Further it said, “2018 will be a transformative year for Tesla, with a high level of operational scaling. As we ramp production of both Model 3 and our energy products while keeping tight control of operating expenses, our quarterly operating income should turn sustainably positive at some point in 2018.”