← BackOctober 19, 2022Tesla Q3 2022 Earnings Call0:00 / 0:00CC1×YouTubeTesla Q3 2022 Earnings CallOctober 19, 2022Musk's opening remarks on Tesla's record Q3 2022 quarter, margins, free cash flow and demand outlook.Musk's opening remarks on Tesla's record Q3 2022 quarter, margins, free cash flow and demand outlook.TranscriptSpeaker ASo just to do a Q3 recap, Q3 was another record quarter on many levels. We had our industry leading operating margin reach 17% and our free cash flow surpassed 3 billion in Q3 and approached $9 billion in the past 12 months. As our factories ramp, we're looking forward to a record breaking Q4. So it really, you know, knock on wood, it looks, looks like we'll have an epic end of year. So Q4 is looking extremely good on the production ramp.Giga Berlin achieved another milestone of 2,000 cars made in a week with very good quality and it's ramping rapidly. Jaeger Austin or Giga Texas should reach the Smile center very soon.In fact, just yesterday we extrapolated yesterday's hold rate. It would be 2000.Our production of 4680 cells has tripled in Q3 compared to the previous quarter. We are finally gaining rapid traction on the 4680 cell and its output is growing rapidly and we expect it to start incorporating in cars and having it be. I see a significant portion of our production here in Texas in the coming months.We also have our second generation of manufacturing equipment for 4680 cells in Texas which continues to show great progress along with our original pilot line, Fremont. The Fremont factory team once again reached record production in Q3 and we intend to keep raising production in Fremont. Regarding Autopilot, at the end of, at the end of September we hosted our second AI day and showed the first prototype of our Optimus robot, the latest updates on our dojo training computer and wide range of improvements of full self driving software.Our vehicles have now driven nearly 60 miles in full self driving beta mode and this number continues to grow exponentially.Our goal with that AI day was to was recruiting and we've seen a massive influx of world class artificial intelligence engineer and scientists resume. So it generated a tremendous amount of interest from some of the best AI researchers in the world. I can't emphasize the importance of this enough because I think finally has become clear to the smartest AI technologists in the world that Tesla is among the very best.So this quarter we expect to go to a wide release of Full self driving Beta in North America. So anyone who has ordered full self driving Beta, full self driving will have access to the FSD beta program this year, probably about a month from now. So and then obviously any new anyone who buys a car and purchases a full self driving option will immediately have that available to them. So the safety that we're seeing when the car is in fsd mode is actually significantly greater than the safety we're seeing.Than what when it is not. Which is a key threshold for going to a wide beta.Let's see, with respect to demand, we've got a lot of questions about demand in recent weeks.I can't emphasize enough. We have excellent demand for Q4 and we expect to sell every car that we make for as far into the future as we can see. So the factories are running at full speed and we're delivering every car we make and keeping operating margins strong.We're still a very small percentage of the total vehicles on the road. Of the 2 billion cars and trucks on the road, we only have about three and a half million. So we've got a long way to go to even reach 1% of the global fleet.Let's see, based on my what people? Based on many things, but certainly questions I get on Twitter about buybacks and I think every one of our board members has gotten questions about buybacks.The we've debated the buyback idea extensively at the board level.The board generally thinks that it makes sense to do a buyback, but we want to work through the right process to do a buyback. But it is certainly possible for us to do a buyback on the order of five to $10 billion even in a downside scenario next year. Even if next year is a very difficult year, we still have the ability to do a five to $10 billion buyback.This is obviously pending board review and approval, so it's likely that we'll do some meaningful buyback.So in conclusion, while the market themes revolve around the short term, it's very important to focus on the long term.I can't emphasize this enough with investors and I think long time investors obviously recognize this. With Tesla you have your local ups and downs, but long term trend has been extremely good. And several years ago I said, I think on an earnings call that I thought it was possible for Tesla to be worth more than Apple, which was then the highest cat company I think on the market. And Apple's time I think it was around $700 billion.And I said it required incredible execution, at least some luck. And we didn't indeed achieve that. Tesla went in fact our past Apple's market cap time and I now am of the opinion that we can far exceed Apple's current marked cap. In fact, I see a potential path for Tesla to be worth more than Apple and Saudi Aramco combined.So now that doesn't mean it will happen or that will be easy in fact, I think it will be very difficult. Require a lot of work, some very creative new products, managed expansion, and always some luck.But for the first time, I am seeing, I see a way for Tesla to be, Let's say, roughly twice the value of Saudi Aramco.I think that's. I haven't quite seen that yet. I mean, this is the first time I'm seeing that potential. So, I mean, we have an incredible product portfolio. I think we've got the most exciting product portfolio of any company on earth, some of which you've heard about, some of which you haven't.We're in the final lab for cybertruck. We're building the cybertruck line here at Giga Texas Austin and making a lot of progress in the robo taxi platform design.And.With respect to batteries, we're moving as fast as possible to have to achieve a thousand gigawatt hours a year production capacity in the United States, vertically integrated. So anode, cathode, lithium refining, moving at a top speed to do that.So I think it's an incredibly exciting future and really an unprecedented future.But none of this would be possible without the incredible team that we have here at Tesla. So I'd like to give a huge shout out to all of our factory employees, engineers, executives and the whole Tesla team. You guys rock.You're the ones making it happen. Thank you.Full transcript →