Tesla beats expectations with losses of $0.48 a share and rev of $1.2B, predicts fewer car deliveries in 2015

Today Tesla announced its second quarter earnings, revealing that it delivered 11,532 cars in the second quarter of 2015. That brings its total number of cars delivered to 21,577 for the year so far — below its original midway target.

The company had promised to deliver 55,000 cars by year’s end, putting a lot of pressure on the second half of the year. Now the company is reducing its aim to 50,000-55,000 cars.

Last year, Tesla missed its goal to deliver 33,000 cars by nearly 1,300 cars.

To make this year’s goal, the electric car company is putting money into expanding its production capabilities. Tesla is slated to start delivering its sports utility vehicle, the Model X, in late Q3 of this year.

“We do think it’s going to be a challenging production ramp on the model X,” said CEO Elon Musk. “We only want to deliver great cars and we don’t want to drive to a number that’s greater than our ability to deliver high quality vehicles.”

Tesla is also busy building out the Gigafactory, a $5 billion battery factory in Nevada.

All that investment means losses. This quarter, Tesla took a loss of $0.48 a share on revenue of $1.2 billion. Tesla was expected to earn revenue of $1.17 billion and take a loss of $0.59 a share, or $117 million.

Though it beat street expectations, traders weren’t pleased. The stock immediately took a 7 percent dive in after-hours trading, but has since rebounded and is only down roughly 2.46 percent.