Liam Denning, Columnist

Tesla Breaks Records But Doesn’t Break Even

Moving more vehicles isn’t translating into profits.

July 24, 2019 at 11:55 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., in the red.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

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Tesla Inc.’s earnings calls have lately taken on the trappings of office going-away parties.

Just before the Q&A portion of Wednesday evening’s second-quarter call, CEO Elon Musk announced that JB Straubel, the company’s veteran chief technology officer, would step down to become a senior advisor. This was at least said up front, as opposed to the by-the-way announcement of the CFO’s departure at the very end of an earnings call in January. Still, news that the man second only to Musk in his identification with Tesla is stepping back now, and after a string of other departures, is even more jarring. Tesla’s stock, down 11% after hours already, dipped further on this news.