Published on April 30, 2020 at 04:55AM by Faiz Siddiqui, The Washington Post
Elon Musk launched into an expletive-laden rant on Tesla's earnings call Wednesday, calling shelter-in-place orders "fascist" and demanding political officials give back their freedom.
"To say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist," he said, before the call abruptly cut out. "This is not democratic-this is not freedom."
The company was forced to shut down its Fremont, California, factory just as it was ramping up production for its Model Y, the crossover vehicle it expects to be its best-selling product.
The comments followed Tesla posting a slight profit Wednesday, a lukewarm signal as worries mounted about the electric carmaker's trajectory amid the global pandemic.
The company said first-quarter profit came in at $16 million, down compared with the past two consecutive quarters. In the same quarter a year ago, the company reported a $702 million loss. The company's nearly $6 billion in quarterly revenue was up 32 percent year over year.
The company in early April already reported a record first quarter for production and deliveries of its vehicles lineup, consisting of the Models S, X, 3 and Y. Still, analysts have cautioned that the pandemic is likely to slice into production an render unlikely its target of half a million vehicles built in 2020.
Tesla echoed that concern, saying it might not hit that target due to the coronavirus. It also warned cash flow and net income might be difficult to predict, so it would revisit its yearly guidance next quarter.
"It is difficult to predict how quickly vehicle manufacturing and its global supply chain will return to prior levels," Tesla said. "We have the capacity installed to exceed 500,000 vehicle deliveries this year, despite announced production interruptions. For our...
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