On July 24, Beijing time, Tesla released its second quarter financial report for 2025. Tesla's second quarter revenue reached US$22.5 billion, down 12% year-on-year, the largest quarterly decline in nearly 10 years; net profit for the quarter was US$1.172 billion, down 16% year-on-year. The gross profit margin in the second quarter was 17.2%, compared with 18% in the same period last year.
Image source: Tesla
Tesla stated in its financial report that the decline in its revenue and profitability was mainly due to a decline in vehicle deliveries, a decrease in regulatory credit income, and a decline in the average vehicle selling price (excluding foreign exchange impact).
In terms of delivery data, Tesla delivered 384,100 vehicles in the quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 13%. Among them, Model 3/Y deliveries fell 12% to 373,700 vehicles.
Tesla's main financial data. Image source: Screenshot of Tesla's financial report
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a earnings call that Tesla is in an "unusual transition period." Tesla said that due to the sudden change in EV tax credit policy and tariffs, the company may experience "difficult quarters in Q4, Q1 and even Q2."
Tesla executives said: "We are starting to see the impact of tariffs in the income statement. The continuous tariff costs increased by about $300 million, with about two-thirds of the impact in the automotive division."
According to CCTV News, the US government began imposing a 25% tariff on imported cars in early April.
The executive said the full impact will be felt in the following quarters due to delays in manufacturing and sales. As a result, near-term costs will increase. “While we are doing our best to manage these impacts, we are in an unpredictable tariff environment.”
Despite the pressure on performance, Musk still emphasized his confidence in the autonomous driving and humanoid robot businesses.
On June 22 this year, Tesla officially launched the Robotaxi driverless taxi service in Austin, Texas. The brand new Model Y was put into use as the first batch of driverless taxis and began to pick up the first batch of passengers.
Tesla emphasized: "We will continue to improve and expand this service (more vehicles, covering a larger area, and eventually eliminating safety officers), and conduct tests in other US cities to prepare for further promotion in the future."
Tesla's goal is to have driverless taxi services covering about half of the U.S. population by the end of this year. "I think we can do it technically," Musk said.
In terms of humanoid robots, Tesla's third-generation humanoid robot is expected to be launched this year, mass-produced next year, achieve an annual production of 100,000 units within five years, and achieve the goal of annual production of 10 million units as soon as possible.
Musk called it "a perfect design", "an amazing product" and "the greatest product ever".
Currently, there is no ready-made solution on the market. Therefore, Tesla needs to independently develop each motor gearbox, power electronics, control electronics, sensors and mechanical components, and design each component based on the first principles of physics.
This week, Tesla opened its restaurant Tesla Diner in Los Angeles, where Optimus robots perform simple tasks such as scooping popcorn. According to Tesla, Tesla Diner is a supercharging station, a classic American restaurant and a drive-in theater, with 80 V4 supercharging piles, suitable for all NACS-compatible electric vehicles, and can provide charging services for visiting Tesla owners and non-Tesla owners.
In terms of new products, Tesla mentioned in its financial report that it had started producing a "more affordable model" in June and plans to achieve mass production in the second half of 2025.
Tesla has mentioned "more affordable models" many times. In the second quarter of last year, Tesla said it planned to launch a more affordable model in the first half of 2025.
At this earnings conference, Tesla did not reveal more appearance information about the "more affordable model", only saying that it looks like Model Y.
In addition, on July 16, Tesla China officially announced the Model YL, which is the flagship model produced by Tesla's Shanghai Super Factory. The model is a large six-seat luxury pure electric SUV with a wheelbase of more than 3 meters and a length of about 5 meters.
In the Chinese market, Tesla has more and more challengers. Xiaomi Auto's two models, Xiaomi SU7 and Xiaomi YU7, are "fighting closely" with Tesla Model 3 and Model Y respectively. At present, the sales of Xiaomi SU7 have exceeded Model 3, with the former selling 265,000 units in the past year and the latter selling 198,000 units. The newly launched Xiaomi YU7 has become a strong competitor for the 200,000-level pure electric SUV, with orders exceeding 289,000 units within one hour of its launch. In addition, Xiaopeng G7, Ledao L60, Zeekr 7X, Zhijie R7 and others have "besieged" Tesla Model Y.
In the large six-seater pure electric SUV segment that Tesla Model YL has entered, Ledao L90, a sub-brand of NIO, will be launched soon, and through NIO's unique battery leasing method, the pre-sale price threshold will be reduced to 193,900 yuan.
Faced with challenges from numerous domestic automakers and new cars, how Tesla will perform in the future remains to be seen by the market.