InveDeckEARNINGS · TSLA

EARNINGS REVIEW

Tesla 2024 Q1 earnings report

2024 Q1 · 2024-03-31Release date 2024-04-23B$ · USD billions

Historical earnings report · Management guidance reflects expectations at the time of the release, not subsequent outcomes. The financial comparison uses the site’s normalized dataset, including comparative figures restated in later filings.

Vehicle weakness and AI investment both pressured cash flow.

Revenue
21.301 B$
Operating income
1.171 B$
FCF · company definition
−2.531 B$

Assessment · Vehicle weakness and AI investment both pressured cash flow. Reading consolidated margins alongside FCF separates business scale from cash realization. The next assessment depends on the business-specific checks set out below.

01 Business performance and growth drivers

Automotive revenue was 17.378 B$, Energy Generation/Storage 1.635 B$, and Services/Other 2.288 B$. Automotive includes regulatory credits and leasing; storage deployments in GWh are not revenue in B$.

Versus the preceding quarter, consolidated revenue changed by -3.866 B$ and operating profit by -0.893 B$; operating margin changed by -2.7 percentage points. Segment commentary explains the consolidated result. Sequential changes without controlling for acquisitions, seasonality and product transitions are not long-term growth rates.

Evidence · 1 ↗

02 Profit quality and margins

Operating margin was 5.5%; Model 3 transition, Berlin disruption and pricing pressure coincided with about 1.0 B$ of AI-infrastructure capex.

On consolidated revenue of 21.301 B$, operating margin was 5.5% and net margin 6.5%. Net profit differed from operating profit by +0.219 B$, reflecting non-operating items, taxes and related effects. This difference cannot by itself be attributed to product demand or operating competitiveness.

Evidence · 1 ↗

03 Cash flow and financial capacity

Quarterly operating cash flow of 0.242 B$ less capital expenditure of 2.773 B$ gives common-basis FCF of -2.531 B$. Ending cash and cash equivalents were 11.805 B$, versus total liabilities of 44.046 B$. Liabilities are not equivalent to borrowings; cash excludes separately reported short-term investments.

Common-basis FCF was -11.9% of revenue. Both operating cash flow and capital expenditure refer to this quarter, not annual or trailing-twelve-month periods. Working-capital movements and non-cash adjustments mean operating cash flow need not equal net profit.

Evidence · 1 ↗ · 2 ↗

04 Management commentary and contemporaneous guidance

Management emphasized cost reduction and existing-factory utilization while lowering FSD subscription/purchase prices.

Management maintained slower 2024 vehicle-growth expectations and planned affordable models earlier than the previous second-half-2025 schedule.

Evidence · 1 ↗

05 Risks and next checks

Operating profit coexists with negative FCF; distinguish downtime/working-capital effects from structural AI spending.

Evidence · 1 ↗

Quarterly results · CY-aligned view

Metric · B$2023 full-year total1Q
2023 Q1
2023-03-31
2Q
2023 Q2
2023-06-30
3Q
2023 Q3
2023-09-30
4Q
2023 Q4
2023-12-31
2024 total of 1 included quarters1Q
2024 Q1
2024-03-31
QoQ ΔYoY Δ
Revenue96.77323.32924.92723.35025.16721.30121.301−3.866−2.028
Operating income8.8912.6642.3991.7642.0641.1711.171−0.893−1.493
Operating margin (%)9.18711.4199.6247.5558.2015.4975.497−2.704 pp−5.922 pp
Net income14.9972.5132.7031.8537.9281.3901.390−6.538−1.123
FCF · company definition4.3580.4411.0050.8482.064−2.531−2.531−4.595−2.972
Operating cash flow · total13.2562.5133.0653.3084.3700.2420.242−4.128−2.271
Net cash CapEx · common8.8982.0722.0602.4602.3062.7732.7730.4670.701
Cash CapEx · Chinese company definition—————————
FCF · total calculation4.3580.4411.0050.8482.064−2.531−2.531−4.595−2.972
Net cash · liquid assets less borrowings24.43720.65021.55622.37324.43721.98921.989−2.4481.339
Liquid assets · including short-term investments29.09422.40223.07526.07729.09426.86326.863−2.2314.461
Borrowings · interest-bearing debt4.6571.7521.5193.7044.6574.8744.8740.2173.122
Cash and cash equivalents16.39816.04815.29615.93216.39811.80511.805−4.593−4.243
Total liabilities · accounting liabilities43.00937.59838.40939.44643.00944.04644.0461.0376.448

CY denotes the calendar quarter with the greatest overlap with the fiscal period. If the first period has no start date, 89 days before its end is used only for calendar mapping. Financial values are not recalculated into calendar quarters. Incomplete years show totals of included quarters; cash, liabilities, borrowings and net cash use the last period-end balance. QoQ and YoY show absolute changes; margin changes are percentage points. Dashes indicate missing evidence or incomparable periods or definitions. Total liabilities never substitute for borrowings.

Definitions and evidence coverage

A dash means unavailable or undisclosed, not zero. Company-defined FCF may differ from total operating cash flow less common-basis CapEx. Total liabilities are accounting liabilities, not interest-bearing debt.

Management commentary summarizes the contemporaneous official earnings release; this report does not represent a full conference-call Q&A review.

Business commentary and guidance reflect the original release. Financial tables retain the existing dataset’s subsequent comparative-filing basis, so 2024 net income restated under the crypto-asset accounting standard adopted in 2025 can differ from the original release.

Official source documents

  1. TSLA 2024 03 31 release ↗
  2. Canonical financial data filing reference ↗
  3. Filing source of the existing audited financial series ↗
  4. Financial filing · 2023-03-31 ↗
  5. Financial filing · 2023-06-30 ↗
  6. Financial filing · 2023-06-30 ↗
  7. Financial filing · 2023-09-30 ↗
  8. Financial filing · 2023-09-30 ↗
  9. Financial filing · 2023-12-31 ↗
  10. Financial filing · 2023-12-31 ↗
  11. Financial filing · 2023-12-31 ↗