Elon Musk, the CEO of electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Inc. TSLA, responded to an article about the company's second quarter financial results with song lyrics and a meme depicting one of the most popular rock bands in history.
What Happened: Tesla reported second quarter revenue of $16.93 billion, up 42% year-over-year. Automotive revenue totaled $14.6 billion in the second quarter, up 43% year-over-year.
Deliveries were reported at 254,695, up 27% year-over-year. Production in the second quarter was 258,580 units, up 25% year-over-year.
A Reuters article shared on Twitter Inc TWTR said “Tesla investors bet on recovery and fantasy.”
The article cited a large market capitalization and premium given to Tesla over rival car companies.
“Whether with humanoid robots or robot taxis, investors are still betting boss Elon Musk will change the world,” the article stated.
The article also calls into question margins dropping for the automotive business with higher costs.
Musk responded to the article in a tweet and had some fun with the title.
“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality,” Musk tweeted.
The quote is of course lyrics from the smash hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” from rock band Queen.
Musk later tweeted a meme with a person asking if someone could perform "Under Pressure," which got a response of “No, but I can try Bohemian Rhapsody.”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2022
The meme refers to the song “Under Pressure,” a song by Queen that also featured David Bowie on vocals.
Musk captioned the meme with a first-place medal emoji, which could be a reference to his being the richest person in the world. Musk has previously used the second-place medal emoji in reference to Amazon.com Inc. AMZN founder Jeff Bezos.
Related Link: Tesla Q2 Earnings Highlights - Revenue Miss, EPS Beat, Bitcoin Converted To Fiat, 'Record Breaking' Second Half Predicted
Why It’s Important: One of the big takeaways from the second quarter report was a decision to sell 75% of the company’s Bitcoin BTC/USD holdings.
Looking past the Bitcoin headline, Tesla announced production progress being made including the company’s highest vehicle production month in company history set in June.
After supply chain issues and factory shutdowns in the first half of the year, Tesla is predicting a big second half of 2022.
“With each of the Fremont and Shanghai factories achieving their highest-ever production and new factory growth, we are focused on a record-breaking second half of 2022.”
Tesla also highlighted progress in its energy business and future growth in profits from the software products, which support that the company might have more than one vision of just electric vehicles.
There’s a kind of magic to what Musk is doing in the electric vehicle industry and the mention of "fantasy" in the title likely wasn’t well received by the CEO.
While some think Tesla has unrealistic goals of production and delivery numbers going forward, for Musk ultimately the show must go on.
TSLA Price Action: Tesla shares are up 6% to $784.34 on Thursday.
Photo: Courtesy of Muhammad Suryanto via Sutterstock
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