Tesla released its financial results for 2024 on Wednesday afternoon, following the close of the markets. The maker of electric vehicles may have to invest in stocks of red ink, because 2024 results were even less impressive than the already-underwhelming 2023 numbers.
Q4, 2024
During the final quarter of last year, Tesla saw its automotive revenues fall by 8 percent compared to the same three months of 2023, dropping to $19.8 billion. It more than doubled its energy and storage revenues, which grew by 113 percent compared to Q4 2023, but this amounts to just $3 billion and a small fraction of Tesla’s overall business. Similarly, services posted a 31 percent growth during those three months, but again the actual contribution in dollar terms was just $2.8 billion.
Total revenue grew by 2 percent in Q4, but income fell by 23 percent, and its operating margin has dropped to just 6.2 percent—the lowest since Q1 2024. By contrast, the industry average operating margin for an automaker is around 10 percent. Net profits fell an astounding 71 percent to $2.3 billion.
The year as a whole
For the whole of 2024, Tesla saw a 6 percent drop in automotive revenues, down to $77 billion. Energy generation and storage increased by 67 percent, to a total of $10 billion. Services grew by 27 percent during the year, bringing in $10.5 billion in revenue. That means total revenue grew by 1 percent in 2024; over the same time period, Tesla’s share price has increased by 103 percent.
But gross profits fell by 1 percent, with net profits falling by a huge 53 percent to $7.1 billion for the year, making this Tesla’s worst year since 2021, when it made just $5.5 billion in profit. Free cash flow dropped 18 percent during the year, to $3.6 billion. Delving into the profit and loss statement, $2.8 billion of that profit came from selling regulatory credits to other automakers, not from selling cars or even supercharger access.