<story><title>Tesla Q1 2020 Update</title><url>https://ir.tesla.com/static-files/c1723af4-ffda-4881-ae12-b6f3c972b795</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>yalogin</author><text>Am I reading this right? They have 25% profit margin on each automotive? Feels like a tech company&amp;#x27;s margins. Does anyone know how it compares to traditional automakers?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gamblor956</author><text>These numbers are not prepared under GAAP for the automotive industry, since there is no such thing as GAAP per-automotive profit margins for global auto manufacturers. Vehicle pricing is too dependent on both the class of the vehicle and the geographic market for a single global number to be meaningful. (For example, Toyota profitably sells vehicles that range from $1000 to commercial vehicles that sell for $250,000 or more.)&lt;p&gt;Tesla provides these numbers because its financials on a GAAP basis show it is under-performing most of its competitors. Despite selling more cars than all of its luxury competitors, Tesla &lt;i&gt;lost money&lt;/i&gt; doing so. Its competitors may not sell as many vehicles, but they made profits on a GAAP basis...(and using Tesla&amp;#x27;s rubrics, would have even higher per-vehicle profits than Tesla since those profits account for capex and other items that Tesla excludes).</text></comment>
<story><title>Tesla Q1 2020 Update</title><url>https://ir.tesla.com/static-files/c1723af4-ffda-4881-ae12-b6f3c972b795</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>yalogin</author><text>Am I reading this right? They have 25% profit margin on each automotive? Feels like a tech company&amp;#x27;s margins. Does anyone know how it compares to traditional automakers?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Traster</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t think that includes CapEx. So they&amp;#x27;re making 25% on each car, but they have to spend several billion dollars building a factory to manufacture them that turned up on their balance sheet in previous years. In the same way they&amp;#x27;re making 25% margin on their car, but they&amp;#x27;re still losing money - because it all goes into building the facilities to manufacture their next model.</text></comment>