Tesla's net income slumped 44% in 3rd quarter as lower prices ate into the automaker's profits

Tesla’s net income slumped in the third quarter versus a year earlier, as price reductions helped drive strong sales growth but also ate into the automaker’s profit margins.

The Austin, Texas, maker of electric vehicles, solar panels and batteries on Wednesday reported net income of USD 1.85 billion for the July-September quarter, a 44 per cent decline from a year earlier. Earnings per share fell to 53 cents from 95 cents.

Excluding stock-based compensation, Tesla’s adjusted net income fell to USD 2.32 billion, or 66 cents per share. On that basis, Tesla’s earnings fell short of analysts’ consensus estimate of 73 cents per share, according to FactSet.

Total revenue rose 9 per cent to USD 23.35 billion. Analysts had forecast $24.19 billion.

Earlier this month, the company reported that it sold 435,059 vehicles during the July-September period, an increase of 27% from the same stretch last year. Even so, Tesla’s deliveries came in below the 461,000 vehicles analysts had predicted the company would sell during the quarter, according to FactSet Research.

The third-quarter sales also marked a step back from Tesla’s 466,140 vehicle deliveries during the April-to-June period, something Tesla blamed on planned downtime to upgrade its factories.

Tesla has been slashing prices most of this year to keep attracting buyers who now have a wider selection of electric vehicles as more automakers shift away from gasoline-powered cars and trucks. The discounts range from USD 4,400 on Tesla’s top-selling vehicles to as much as USD 20,000 on its most expensive models.

The latest round of cost cutting trimmed Tesla’s operating margin, which represents how efficiently sales are turned into pretax profits, down to 7.6 per cent in the third quarter. That’s down from 17.2 per cent a year earlier. The measure also declined sharply in the first two quarters of this year.

As usual, Tesla’s third-quarter sales consisted primarily of its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, which have been made even more attractive by lowered prices. Despite large price cuts, sales of the aging models S and X fell 14 per cent year over year to 15,985.

Tesla’s shares closed 4.8 per cent lower Thursday. They were up 2 per cent in after-hours trading following the release of the earnings report.