Tesla Inc. is expecting capital expenditure to exceed $10 billion in 2024 and to range from $8 billion to $10 billion for each of the following two fiscal years.
The electric-vehicle maker
TSLA,
made the disclosure in its 10-K annual report filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission published on Monday.
“We are simultaneously ramping new products, building or ramping manufacturing facilities on three continents, piloting the development and manufacture of new battery cell technologies, expanding our Supercharger network and investing in autonomy and other artificial intelligence enabled training and products, and the pace of our capital spend may vary depending on overall priority among projects, the pace at which we meet milestones, production adjustments to and among our various products, increased capital efficiencies and the addition of new projects,” the company said.
The company expects to meet its capex needs from cash flow from operations, which is supported by sales growth.
“Overall, we expect our ability to be self-funding to continue as long as macroeconomic factors support current trends in our sales.
Tesla warned last week that it expects to grow more slowly this year as it focuses on its next-generation vehicle. It offered that guidance as it posted weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and gross margins that fell to 17.6% from 23.8% in the year-earlier period.
In the letter to shareholders, Tesla reiterated that it expects that the Cybertruck ramp will be “longer than other models given its manufacturing complexity.”
The next-generation vehicle, of which little is known, has been dubbed the Model 2. A question about whether the new EV would be launched by 2025 has been the top query on Tesla’s investor-relations site.
Analysts were unimpressed by the company’s earnings call with Chief Executive Elon Musk.
Wedbush’s Daniel Ives, often effusively enthusiastic about the stock, didn’t mince words when summarizing Tesla’s earnings call, which he dubbed a “train wreck.”
“We were dead wrong expecting Musk and team to step up like adults in the room on the call and give a strategic and financial overview of the ongoing price cuts, margin structure, and fluctuating demand. … [I]nstead we got a high level Tesla long-term view,” Ives wrote.
The analyst also had some choice words to describe the Tesla post-result conference calls since the departure of Chief Financial Officer Zach Kirkhorn last year.
Without Kirkhorn, “conference calls have been horror shows; return
to formal guidance and goal posts and make messaging changes on calls,” Ives wrote.
Tesla’s stock has fallen 26% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX
has gained 2.5%.