Tesla's profits fall 71 percent

Tesla's profits fell 71 percent in the first three months of this year, according to an earnings release released by the company. The company's performance fell short of analysts' expectations.

Total revenue fell 9 percent from a year earlier, to $19.3 billion, while car sales revenue fell 20 percent during the first three months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, financial data show.

These new financial details come at a time when some shareholders have called on Elon Musk - who currently holds a temporary position as a government employee and whose term expires next month - to step down from his role at the White House and return full-time to running Tesla.

During the opening of the earnings conference call on Tuesday, Musk defended the work he is doing with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and commented on the protests against Tesla, saying, without providing evidence, that the protesters were demonstrating because they were "taking money illegally."

He then said that working with DOGE was necessary, but added that “the work with the government to establish order in finances is largely complete.”

"I think that starting next month, in May, the time I will devote to these will decrease significantly," he said.

Musk added that he expects to continue working for the government one or two days a week until the end of Donald Trump's presidency, "to make sure the abuses and frauds we stopped don't come back with force."

DOGE has yet to provide evidence of the frauds that are being claimed to have been committed in the past. /Telegraph/