Last quarter, I brought up the fact that Tesla’s operating margin – which former CFO Zachary Kirkhorn once touted in 2023 as essentially the metric that leadership was “most focused” on – was in serious trouble.
It’s gotten worse. Much worse. Tesla reported an operating margin of just 2.1%, down from the 6.2% in Q4 of 2024, and way, way down from the 16% level it was at when Kirkhorn made those comments.
Tesla says this was a result of selling fewer cars at lower prices, but also because of the billions it is throwing at “AI and other R&D projects.”
