--- title: "Elon Admits That Tesla Is in for a World of Hurt" description: "After a horrid second quarter earnings report and getting backstabbed by Trump, Elon Musk is says that things will be \"rough\" for Tesla." date: "2025-07-24" modified: "2025-07-24" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-admits-tesla-hurt" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Tesla" tags: - "elon musk" - "evs" - "tesla" --- # Elon Admits That Tesla Is in for a World of Hurt ![After a horrid second quarter earnings report and getting backstabbed by Trump, Elon Musk is says that things will be "rough" for Tesla.]() *\Image: Jason Merritt / Getty Images for Tesla / Futurism\* The ordeal isn't over yet for Tesla or its investors, according to CEO Elon Musk, as it misses heaps of Wall Street targets in its latest earnings report. "We probably could have a few rough quarters," Musk said in a conference call on Wednesday, [as quoted by the *Financial Times*.]() If past is prelude, he could be onto something**.** In the second quarter, between April and June of this year, Tesla raked in just $1.2 billion in net income, when during that same period last year it made $1.4 billion. Worse still, its revenue shrank by 12 percent from $25.5 billion to $22.5 billion, making it Tesla's worst quarterly drop in sales in more than a decade, [according to *Reuters*](). It's also Tesla's third quarterly decline in profit in a row. The stock market responded in kind. Tesla shares fell by over nine percent on Thursday, seesawing back after it had slowly nudged upwards in the week leading up to the latest earnings report. The automaker's stock has rallied by around 50 percent since hitting a year-low in April, but overall, it's down by nearly 25 percent this year. Tesla has been in turmoil since Musk became increasingly involved in far-right politics over the past year or so, most notably by working alongside president Donald Trump to gut the federal government after spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get him elected. This has [severely damaged Tesla's brand](), making it the target of [protests]() and vandalism. All the while, it's faced steeper competition from other automakers, especially Chinese titan BYD, which [recently surpassed Tesla]() as the largest EV company in the world. To drive up sales, Tesla has offered massive discounts and [desperate financing deals](), including for its newly refreshed Model Y — its stab at reviving its aging vehicle lineup — but these efforts, evidently, ate into its margins. Musk also made a [failed gamble]() with the Cybertruck. Tesla sold just 4,306 of the controversial pickup trucks in the second quarter, marking an astonishing 50 percent drop from last year. Its poor reliability and its controversial styling have hurt the automaker's brand further. Moreover, whatever Musk hoped to gain with his alliance with Trump has gone up in smoke after the pair had a spectacular falling out in June, which is still dragging on. Trump's recently passed "big, beautiful bill" will remove a substantial $7,500 tax credit for EVs by the end of September, threatening Tesla's already-shrinking sales. The bill will also upend a program that allowed Tesla to sell credits to rival automakers who needed to offset their emissions to comply with federal regulations, earning the company over $11 billion to date. With Trump ending penalties for car companies that don't meet those emission standards, that easy money stands to dry up. This quarter, Tesla's regulatory credit revenue has shrunk to $439 million, which is less than half of what it made last year. "We are in the transition period where we will lose a lot of incentives in the US," Musk acknowledged on the call. Musk went on to assure investors that things would turn around once Tesla's robotaxi service starts generating a profit. That's a huge uncertainty, however, as the limited robotaxi operation in Austin, Texas, has raised significant questions about the program's capabilities and whether it will be able to scale "rapidly" as Musk has promised. **More on Tesla:** *[Elon Musk Warns That Tesla Board Could Fire Him "If I Go Crazy"]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()