Tesla profits slide 16%, despite Elon Musk’s pivot back to his companies Listen In addition, new and used EV tax credits will end on September 30. "The One Big Bill has a lot of changes that would affect our business in the near term," he said on the earnings call. "If you are in the U.S. and looking to buy a car, place your order now as we may not be able to guarantee delivery of orders placed in the later part of August and beyond," he said. Taneja said plans to ramp up production of a lower-cost vehicle were slowed as the company rushed to meet an expected bump in demand ahead of the end of subsidies. Sponsor Message Musk said the company was in "a weird transition period where we'll lose a lot of incentives in the U.S." and predicted "we probably could have a few rough quarters. I'm not saying we will, but we could." In a bid to cast a spotlight beyond car sales, in its earnings report, the company called the second quarter "a seminal point in Tesla's history: the beginning of our transition from leading the electric vehicle and renewable energy industries to also becoming a leader in AI, robotics and related services." The company rolled out the first iteration of its robotaxi service in Austin in June, and the earnings report said the company's approach to the service would allow for rapid scaling and improved profitability. The company is also developing a humanoid robot called Optimus. On the call, Musk said Tesla was getting regulatory permission to expand autonomous ride hailing into Arizona, Florida, Nevada and the San Francisco Bay Area, and he made a bold prediction about future expansion. "I think we'll probably have autonomous ride hailing in probably half the population of the U.S. by the end of the year. That's at least our goal subject to regulatory approvals," he said. Musk did not explain how the company planned to ramp up so quickly from a limited test zone in a city of about 1 million people to half the U.S. population. During the second quarter, Tesla's total automotive revenue slipped 16% while energy generation and storage revenue was off 7%. Services and other revenue grew by 17%.