Tesla shares fell 4.2% in Wednesday’s aftermarket, despite the electric car manufacturer’s better-than-expected second quarter. The figures also show that profits are under pressure from the many discounts the company has given in the first six months of the year.

Tesla saw a 47% increase in revenue in the period to USD 24.93bn against expectations of USD 24.51bn, while adjusted earnings per share came in at USD 0.91, compared to USD 0.76 a year earlier and against a consensus estimate of USD 0.81, according to Bloomberg News.

Despite the strong top-line growth, growth on the bottom line has not kept up, mainly due to the many large discounts that Tesla introduced earlier this year across all of its markets.

The gross margin ended the second quarter at 18.2%, which was lower than the analysts’ estimate of 18.8%. A year ago, the gross margin stood at 25.0%. During the same period, the operating margin has fallen from 14.6% to 9.6%.

”Our operating margin remained healthy at approximately 10%, even with price reductions in Q1 and early Q2. This reflects our ongoing cost reduction efforts, the continued production ramp success in Berlin and Texas and the strong performance of our Energy and Services & Other businesses,” Tesla says in the report.

Tesla is also among the largest manufacturers of solar cells in the US.

The company released the figures for the number of electric cars sold in the second quarter at the beginning of July. It surprised positively at 466,140 vehicles, while 425,595 cars were expected.

Tesla does not give specific expectations for either the third quarter or the whole of 2023, but reiterates that the company is sticking to its plans to increase production by a cumulative 50% per year.

”For 2023, we expect to remain ahead of the long-term 50% CAGR [compound annual growth rate] with around 1.8 million vehicles for the year.”

For the full year 2023, writes Bloomberg News, analysts expect Tesla to deliver 1.85 million electric cars to customers and that revenue will reach USD 100.18bn, while adjusted earnings per share are expected to reach USD 3.43.