However, the company's sales and earnings beat Wall Street expectations. The automaker stepped up price cuts and other incentives to sell off its vehicle inventories, which naturally weighed on margins. Tesla's gross margin fell to 18.1% in the April-June period, compared with 19.3% in the previous quarter and 26% in the same period last year.

The group said it was focused on cutting costs and developing new products, warning that "the challenges of these uncertain times" were not yet in the past. It added that lower raw material prices and US government tax credits were helping to drive down production costs per vehicle.

Un parcours ébouriffant

A track record to disgust short-sellers

"Musk said the company would continue to lower prices to offset the impact of rising rates on household purchasing power", notes AlphaValue automotive analyst Valentin Mory, who points out that the main deception of the publication comes from free cash flow generation, "due to less favorable changes in working capital, including inventory-records".

Target of 1.8 million vehicles sold in 2023

Tesla confirmed on Wednesday that it expects to deliver around 1.8 million vehicles this year, after delivering 466,000 vehicles worldwide in the April-June period - a record for the company, which is gradually joining the gotha of mass-market manufacturers. Quarterly sales came in at $24.93 billion, against a consensus of $24.48 billion according to Refinitiv data. Adjusted earnings came to USD 0.91 per share, versus the expected USD 0.82.

At the same time, Elon Musk has set new artificial intelligence targets, notably for autonomous driving software and the use of humanoid robots in factories. Tesla is in preliminary talks with a major automaker to license its autonomous driving technology, Musk said.

Autonomous driving

Autonomous driving is the entrepreneur's next hobbyhorse, following setbacks in the past. The group intends to continue pushing for higher sales volumes at the expense of profit margins. In any case, Musk considers that the arrival of autonomous driving "will make all these figures ridiculous". The executive did, however, make amends. "People have sort of laughed at me, and perhaps rightly so, because my forecasts for full autonomous driving have been optimistic in the past".