Elon Musk has been straining for some time against the idea that Tesla should be seen as a carmaker. Rather, as the first all-purpose robotics company, its future lies in equipping and running a global fleet of driverless taxis and in selling humanoid robots.
The full financial implications of that attempted pivot are starting to come into focus. This week, Tesla signalled a lurch back into what is expected to be negative free cashflow territory as it gears up for the long-awaited dawn of the robots. A decade after its heavy spending on electric vehicle development led to bankruptcy worries, Musk is once again getting ready to burn through mountains of cash in pursuit of a big dream.
Tesla’s latest earnings report, released on Wednesday, underlined how untethered it has become from the financial strictures it once observed as an automobile company. Musk once talked confidently about growing vehicle sales by 50 per cent a year and boasted of his company’s ability to maintain profit margins well in excess of much of the auto industry.