Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) boss Elon Musk said the company’s new gigafactories are losing Elon Musk “losing billions of dollars” due to battery shortages and disruptions from Covid lockdowns in major Chinese cities.
The comments were made in an interview recorded last month with the Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley club, with Musk saying he expected the problems would be “fixed real fast”.
In recent days, the Tesla chief executive said the number of salaried workers will be cut 10% in the coming three months, but expects to grow the number of hourly workers at the same time.
Production at Berlin officially started in late March, while the ribbon was cut at Giga Austin, Texas, in early April.
Musk said: “Both Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic money furnaces right now. It's really like a giant roaring sound, which is the sound of money on fire.”
Both are losing money, he said, as “there's a ton of expense and hardly any output”.
Tesla’s next quarterly earnings are due in late July.
Musk has said he expects the EV manufacturer to deliver up to 1.5mln vehicles this year, up from the near-1mln delivered in 2021, despite supply chain issues.
Even with disruption to Giga Shanghai late in the previous quarter, the company increased revenues to US$18.76bn and increase gross profit margins.
Last month broker Wedbush, which has long held a ‘buy’ rating on the company’s shares, cut its forecasts for the current quarter.
Total deliveries of 277k are now expected, down from its prior 297k estimate, with revenue of US$15.9bn, down from US$16.9bn, and earnings per share cut to US$1.59 from US$2.29.
For the full year it predicted 1.43mln deliveries, down from 1.56mln, with US$81bn of revenue (from US$87.1bn) and pro-forma EPS of US$11.46 (US$12.62).