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The Verge
18 minutes ago
- The Verge
Tesla reports 14 percent drop in second-quarter vehicle deliveries
Tesla sales hit a new low, with the company reporting a 14 percent drop in second-quarter vehicle deliveries compared to a year ago. The company said that it produced a total of 410,244 vehicles between April–June of this year, including 396,835 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as well as 13,409 'other vehicles' like the Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck. That represents a minor 0.1 percent drop compared to the second quarter of 2024, when the company produced 410,831 vehicles. Tesla also said that it delivered a total of 384,122 vehicles, including 373,728 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as well as 10,394 other vehicles — a 14 percent decline compared to the second quarter of 2024, when it delivered 443,956 vehicles. (For a direct-to-consumer company like Tesla, deliveries are a proxy for sales.) Expectations were pretty grim for this quarter, with UBS predicting an 18 percent decrease in deliveries year over year, and Barclay estimating 375,000 vehicles sold. Tesla may have outperformed these expectations, but the company is still on a steady decline since reporting its first year-over-year sales drop since 2020 last year. It was another troubling sign for the once high-flying EV company as it continues to struggle with rising competition, stagnant demand for electric vehicles, and a growing backlash against Elon Musk's political activities within President Donald Trump's administration. The Tesla Takedown protest movement, which began earlier this year, has targeted hundreds of Tesla dealerships around the world in an effort to erode the company's sales even further. Last month, Musk announced that he was stepping away from his position at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) amid a bitter feud with Trump — but insisted that DOGE's controversial cost-cutting efforts would continue. Still, his reputation in the US has plummeted, with a majority of people saying they have a negative view of him. His claims to have saved the government a trillion dollars by slashing 'waste, fraud, and abuse' seem to have been mostly overstated. There were other worrying signs ahead of the Q2 report. Tesla's sales in Europe have been in a serious slump with five straight consecutive months of decline, according to registration data from the European Union. In China, the company's sales continue to decrease as domestic brands like BYD grab more market share. (Tesla does not break out sales regionally, so registration data from Europe and China are watched closely.) During Q1, Tesla attributed some of the drop in sales to design and production changes for the newly refreshed Model Y. But now the revamped EV is widely available, and the automaker's numbers are still going in the wrong direction. There's been inner turmoil at Tesla, too. Last week, Omead Afshar, Tesla's VP of manufacturing and a longtime Musk ally, left the company — with some reports suggesting he was fired. His departure follows that of Milan Kovac, head of the Optimus humanoid robot project, earlier this month. The launch of Tesla's long-delayed robotaxi service was also a bit of a bust. Instead of the 'unsupervised' vehicles that Musk had promised at the beginning of this year, the robotaxis featured Tesla-employed safety monitors in the front passenger seat. Several videos of the service in action showed significant safety lapses, including a robotaxi driving over the double yellow line into the opposite lane of traffic and braking hard in the middle of the road for no reason.
an hour ago
Award-winning international correspondent launches a new journalism platform
NEW YORK -- Jane Ferguson has won awards for unflinching reporting from dangerous lands including Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen. So she was unlikely to be intimidated by seeking financing for a new journalism platform, despite tough times for the news industry. 'It's very high pressure,' said Ferguson, founder of Noosphere. 'I'm used to pressure in the field.' Started this year, Noosphere offers journalists a place to showcase work to consumers who are attracted by a more personal style of reporting than they'd normally see on traditional outlets. It's similar to Substack, with a twist. Instead of paying for feeds of individual journalists — the Substack model — people who subscribe to Noosphere for $14.99 a month get access to all of its journalists. There are 20 so far, expected to increase to 24 with the site's upcoming British launch. Noosphere — named to reference a state of consciousness advanced by Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin — arrives at a time of flux in the news industry. Consumers are fleeing newspapers and television news and trying different approaches springing up in a new media world. Ferguson raised $1 million to get Noosphere off the ground and is about to announce an additional round of investment. Ferguson, 40, grew up in Northern Ireland, and was attracted to the high-stakes, high-risk world of international reporting. For CNN International and then PBS NewsHour, she worked largely alone, covering stories about famine and war crimes in South Sudan, the conflict in Syria and Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal in 2021. The latter experience left her shell-shocked and heartbroken, wondering if she'd reached the end of that phase of her career. 'I had been on the road for 15 years,' she said. 'I was exhausted, and in some respects, burnt out.' She settled in the United States, teaching — and learning — at Princeton. She took classes in entrepreneurship and built contacts in the business world. Ferguson knew how many of her former international colleagues had to hustle to find outlets for their work, and envisioned Noosphere as a landing spot. Her business partner, Seb Walker, worked at Vice Media, known for its strong international reporting before filing for bankruptcy in 2023. 'It's gotten a lot harder to continue making a living doing this,' said Matthew Cassell, an international correspondent whose credits include Vice. A member of Noosphere's inaugural class of journalists, Cassell has posted videos giving his perspectives on the Israel-Iran war, along with recent reporting from the West Bank. Shrouq Al Aila contributed video from Gaza, showing efforts to distribute aid as the sound of gunfire is heard in the background. Oren Ziv reported from a missile strike in Israel, walking through a hospital's shattered hallways to show the destruction. 'It feels like a really high-quality reporter is Face-Timing you from the field,' Ferguson said, 'which is really cool.' News consumers, particularly young ones, are souring on more stilted, conventional television news reporting, said veteran journalist Kate O'Brian, who is on Noosphere's board of directors. 'The stage has been set for an audience who wants to hear directly from the journalist,' O'Brian said. Ferguson envisions a reporting staff that is roughly half international, half based in the United States. Former CNN journalist Chris Cillizza reports on Washington for Noosphere. Her biggest signing to date is former 'Meet the Press' moderator Chuck Todd. He started a Sunday night show in June, with 'War Room' host Steve Bannon and Trita Parsi, founder of the National Iranian American Council, as his first guests. Todd has hired the former producer for Charlie Rose's PBS talk show, a clue to his ambitions for an eclectic show interviewing interesting people from politics and business. 'Jane's hard to say no to,' Todd said. 'Like any smart executive, she knows what she doesn't know, and goes to find smart people who she thinks know more." Ferguson's bet is that audiences can only afford so many Substack subscriptions to individual journalists, and that Noosphere will offer access to more at a set price. She's also talked to news outlets interested in acquiring some of the reporters' work. The challenge to getting Noosphere established is an increasingly crowded marketplace, and several of her journalists aren't household names. Noosphere journalists are paid a percentage of subscription fees, and given a greater amount if a subscriber specifically cites that contributor's work in signing on. Ferguson will not say how many subscribers she has yet. 'Substack created a market that did not exist before and I give them huge kudos for that,' O'Brian said. 'This is just a different way of approaching it.' To succeed, 'you have to offer a lot,' Todd said. 'You can't just offer one or two things. Every hot spot around the world, Noosphere will have journalists on the ground. They have a reasonable chance to be very successful in their lane. The question is how big the lane can get.' Todd said Noosphere's advantage is that it has been created by reporters, a distinction from the lack of journalism experience found among executives in the business, he said. Ferguson, too, has wondered whether journalism can survive the diminishment or death of news organizations. 'The solution for the problems of the industry are going to come from journalists and not media executives,' she said.
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
A bare-bones deal is Europe's best hope in trade talks with the U.S., sources say
The clock is ticking in trade talks between Washington and the European Union, with European officials now saying their best hope is striking a "political" deal before a key July 9 deadline, three sources told CNBC. Concrete details of such a trade arrangement would have to be worked out at a later time. "The U.S. proposal from last week is aimed at an agreement in principle," one EU official, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the talks, told CNBC, adding that this agreement in principle would then "be negotiated out into a proper trade agreement at a later stage." Previously close allies, the U.S. and EU have had a fractious relationship amid disagreements over trade and support for embattled Ukraine in the months since the start of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term. Tensions escalated in early April, when White House announced a spate of reciprocal tariffs against most global trade partners, including a 20% levy on the EU. All such duties have been temporarily reduced until July 9 to facilitate talks. The U.S. sent a new proposal to the EU's negotiating team last week. European negotiators are having face-to-face talks with their American counterparts later this week with the view to get a deal done in the coming days. Total bilateral trade in goods between the EU and the U.S. accounted for 851 billion euros ($1 trillion) in 2023, according to figures from the European Commission. European officials expect a new update on the negotiations Friday, but the situation is fluid. On Monday, European ambassadors had conversations about the state of play in the trade negotiations. Lithuania's Minister of Finance Rimantas Šadžius told CNBC on Wednesday that he is "slightly optimistic" there will be a trade compromise between both sided of the Atlantic. Despite this, sources told CNBC that, despite efforts to reach a trade compromise, the EU is preparing for any possible outcomes, including the return of reciprocal tariffs. "The general sense is that in the coming days and weeks, all outcomes, ranging from a successful deal on a framework agreement all the way to higher US tariffs with additional sectors, are still possible," the same EU official told CNBC. This sentiment was also shared by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last Friday. "We are ready for a deal. At the same time, we are preparing for the possibility that no satisfactory agreement is reached," she said at a press conference. The European Commission was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC Wednesday about an update to the talks. Another EU official, also speaking to CNBC on the condition of anonymity, said there is an awareness in Brussels that it is almost impossible to return to the trade relationship that the EU and U.S. enjoyed before the April 2 announcement of reciprocal tariffs. A third EU official, who also chose to speak anonymously, told CNBC that there is a risk that the outcome of the talks will be an "asymmetrical" deal, under which the EU will not escape some additional U.S. levies. Nonetheless, the bloc is looking to get concessions in critical areas for its economy, including automotive, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, all three sources confirmed. The first EU official added that some member states will only agree to a deal in principle if there is a commitment from the Trump administration to "upfront tariff relief." The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, negotiates trade with other parts of the world, but its proposals and position reflects the thinking of the 27 capitals.
