Tesla Semi, Ride-share, and Energy in focus with investors ahead of Q2 2020 earnings call

Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) retail and institutional investors are aggregating a number of inquiries that will potentially be addressed by the electric car maker’s executives in the upcoming Q2 2020 earnings call, which will be held on July 22, 2020. The questions are aggregated from verified retail and institutional TSLA shareholders by Say, a startup that aims to create and develop investor communication tools.

Using the platform, Tesla’s retail and institutional investors have been submitting and voting on inquiries they wish to be discussed and clarified by the electric car maker. Here are a number of notable questions that garnered a high number of votes from the company’s retail and institutional shareholders.

RETAIL SHAREHOLDERS

• We want the release of the Tesla Ride-Hailing network soon with owner-drivers. It can’t be done until there is a large enough concentration of vehicles in service areas. What is threshold for vehicles needed before you can release it and will you offer incentives to owner-drivers?
• Now that it is time to bring the Semi to volume production, can you share more detail on production plans? What weekly production rate is considered volume production and when does Tesla expect to reach that rate?
• Tesla Energy seems widely ignored by Wall St. despite Elon’s comments about the growth rate exceeding automotive. Could Tesla share more detail on current/planned projects to help investors better understand the business outlook? How disruptive is Tesla’s Autobidder technology?

• What is the holdup for Tesla Insurance outside of California? Will you release numbers from that part of the business? Will Tesla Insurance be required to participate in the Tesla Ride-Hailing network as a driver?
• Will new gigafactories also produce energy products and superchargers? How long before Giga-Reno starts making the same things as Giga-Buffalo for faster delivery to western states?
• One new gigafactory a year is not going to be enough to achieve the company mission. When will you announce multiple new gigafactory locations and when will Tesla have a gigafactory in the southern hemisphere?
• Can we expect the Model Y manufacturing simplifications and efficiency improvements, such as the rear underbody casting and heat pump, to be implemented into the Model 3? If so, what would timeline look like for this?

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS

• Can you discussion the opportunity for Tesla as a registered utility? How aggressively do you plan to expand in the UK and when will you enter new markets?

Tesla is yet to fully confirm if it will be entertaining questions from Say in the upcoming Q4 earnings call, though the company has regularly addressed inquiries from retail shareholders in past quarters. By doing so, Tesla is essentially democratizing the process of communicating its earnings to shareholders and institutional investors. Such a strategy is yet another step away from convention, considering that traditional earnings calls usually feature exclusive questions from Wall Street analysts and the occasional member of the media.

Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings call is expected to be held on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time (5:30 p.m. ET).

The full list of questions from TSLA’s retail and institutional investors listed on Say could be accessed here.

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