Edit | Yu Bin
Produced by | Chaoqi Network "Yu see column"
Recently, Tesla, the global new energy vehicle overlord, announced its fourth quarter and 2021 financial reports. According to the financial report data, the global and Chinese electric vehicle market outbreak, Tesla's indicators have exceeded Wall Street expectations. According to the financial report, Tesla's 2021 revenue was $53.823 billion, up from $31.536 billion in the same period last year; net profit was $5.519 billion (about 34.76 billion yuan, net income of about 100 million yuan per day), an increase of 665% from $721 million in the same period last year.
It is worth mentioning that this is a new high set by Tesla since its listing 19 years ago. At the same time, this is also the second consecutive year since Tesla went public to achieve positive profitability. However, under the astronomical revenue and net profit data, the public's doubts about Tesla are not endless. Some insiders even slammed that Tesla has become a money-making machine compared to the elegant feelings that its founder has claimed to the outside world for many years. The bigger skepticism is that Tesla has always regarded itself as a technology company, but it is no different from other new energy vehicle companies. The only difference is that more new energy vehicles are produced and sold.
And, even in the past few years, Tesla has been relatively ahead in terms of sales and production. However, after the release of the financial report, Tesla also issued a warning to the outside world: its supply chain problems affected by the epidemic will still linger, and the company's production capacity may also be limited. Therefore, in the current unstable global economic environment, whether Tesla can maintain the brilliant results of the past year is still unknown.
For example, in the past 2021, Tesla has frequently experienced crises. Whether it is the decline in stock prices and the shrinkage of hundreds of billions of dollars in market value, or repeatedly being plagued by car owners' rights protection and lawsuits, Tesla's potential crisis cannot be ignored.
The stock price fluctuated greatly, and the Tesla myth was shattered
It is understood that Musk, the founder of Tesla, known as the real-life version of "Iron Man", has always been the darling of wealth. However, before reaching the peak of his life, he also experienced the darkest moment. For example, around 2019, Musk was collectively shorted by Wall Street because Tesla encountered a bottleneck in production capacity. At that time, Musk publicly admitted that he lacked financial strength and was only 1 month away from bankruptcy.
It is said that Musk even asked for help from Apple, but Cook directly refused to meet. However, Musk then set his sights on China. Under the favorable policy of domestic new energy vehicles, Tesla has also enjoyed a wave of dividends, which can be described as a resurrection. In the following years, tesla cars were not only sold in China in large quantities, but also supported by policies to build super tools in Shanghai and quickly build and put into production. Since then, Tesla has also taken off again in the secondary capital market and has become a leader in the new energy automobile industry.
But as the saying goes: the higher you climb, the heavier you fall. Tesla's stock price soared, and even Musk himself could not believe it. As a result, it even publicly stated that Tesla's stock price was inflated too much.
Sure enough, since the beginning of last year, Tesla's stock price has entered a downturn. In the middle of the year, Tesla's stock price fell to the bottom. Moreover, according to The European data in April, Tesla even showed signs of slow sales. The most popular model 3 sold only 1244 vehicles, you know, it sold 28184 vehicles in March, down 95%.
At the same time, model 3 sales in China have also fallen by as much as 70%, which seems to mean that the good times that belong to Tesla have become a thing of the past. At that time, its market value once evaporated by nearly 2 trillion yuan. Therefore, the information about the destruction of tesla myths on the Internet at that time was also flying all over the sky.
It has been observed that although some of the market interpretations are a bit extreme, they also release many signals that are unfavorable to Tesla. For example, in addition to sales, the correspondence between Tesla's stock price and its actual market performance and technological content has been repeatedly questioned by investors. This is also the fundamental reason why Wall Street collectively shorted before the early production capacity kept up.
Although the construction of a factory in China has alleviated the pressure of insufficient production capacity to a certain extent. However, compared with the traditional fuel vehicle giants, its technological content is obviously not proportional to the valuation.
You know, Tesla Motors' market capitalization of more than $900 billion has long since become the world's largest automotive company by market capitalization, and even exceeded the sum of the valuations of 9 major automakers including Everyone, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, General Motors, Peugeot, Honda, Fiat Fiat and its beauty. Under tesla's inflated market capitalization, there is obviously a huge bubble.
As Cramer told the media, although Tesla is the king of the electric car field, it should be regarded as a technology company rather than a traditional car manufacturer, so it should also be given higher expectations. "Tesla should never let Tesla become an 'ordinary' car company, because then it loses its storytelling." Cramer said.
It is understood that some brokerages give Tesla a higher rating because Tesla's potential high-margin software revenue, not just car sales, and investors' valuation of recurring software revenue is often higher than the valuation of car sales. However, the market performance of Tesla's stock price in the past year does not rule out the possibility of some investment institutions wantonly speculating and profiting from it.
As industry experts say, Tesla, as a pioneer in the industry, has some advantages in technology, but it also has to pay the price of pioneering exploration. The current battery technology, efforts to find a balance between energy density, safety, low cost, the battery technology on the market is not yet completely satisfactory, Tesla in the global automotive market, does not have a unique competitiveness, so the market value or its table.
Lawsuits plagued by a decline in word of mouth, Tesla began the road to rights protection
Skinny camels are bigger than horses, and Tesla rarely seems anxious because of stock price turmoil. On the contrary, it is a high-profile rights protection for consumers, which seems to be somewhat helpless.
On April 19 last year, on the first day of the Shanghai International Auto Show, a woman in the Tesla pavilion loudly defended her rights and stood on the roof of the Tesla exhibition car. The online video and photos about Tesla's "brake failure" have turned this rights protection incident that has aroused great media attention into a public opinion game between the owner and Tesla.
Eventually, the woman was taken out of the exhibition hall, and some of the onlookers shouted "Tesla beat people." It is said that there are also media staff who encounter Tesla staff snatching mobile phones and tearing up clothes. At the scene of the incident, the attitude of Tesla staff towards the defenders has triggered the anger of netizens across the country.
It is worth noting that the user information leakage incident involved in this has made Tesla the target of public opinion. At that time, Tesla disclosed its driving information without the consent of the owner, trying to prove itself. Who expected, but the husband of the female car owner grabbed the handle and declared that he wanted to defend his rights to the end.
Although the incident eventually became a legal dispute, the two who were right and who were wrong could only face the court. However, the negative impact on the reputation of the Tesla brand is self-evident. In fact, Tesla's suspected accident due to quality problems is not the first time, but after experiencing this rights protection incident, it has attracted more media attention.
For example, during the morning rush hour in mid-May last year, a Tesla new energy vehicle was suspected of hitting a roadside green tree and spontaneously combusting while passing through The Nansha District of Guangzhou City, causing minor injuries to the driver and trapping no one. Coincidentally, there was also a video of a Tesla high-speed rear-end truck in Shaoguang, Guangdong Province, which was previously reported. At that time, professionals evaluated and analyzed that the speed of Tesla vehicles was as high as 158km/h, and the speed limit of 60km/h in the accident section was also related to the operation of the owner's brakes.
However, due to the fact that the cause of the incident required a period of investigation of the incident, it was not announced in time, so it also triggered many speculations among netizens.
What is even more surprising is that recently many media said that Tesla has opened its own rights protection model, officially suing tens of millions of fan Network red anchors, suing them for infringement of the right to reputation. The cause is that before and after the Shanghai Auto Show female car owner rights protection incident, the anchor has released two issues of "Tesla Model 3 automatic emergency braking test" video, saying that its braking ability is not as good as Xiaopeng P7.
According to reports, at that time, some netizens exposed the private chat records with the blogger, who lamented that the control of tesla Model 3 was really good. This also means that the results of the assessment may not be objective enough. That's why Tesla took him to court for violating his right to reputation.
In fact, before Tesla opened its rights protection, it was also a lawsuit as early as September 2019, "Tesla admitted 1.52 million yuan in damages, turned around and sued the owner for 5.05 million yuan" which triggered discussions. At that time, there were as many as five lawsuits between the two alone, including the Tesla used car dispute case, Tesla v. Mr. Han's two scooter disputes, Mr. Han v. Tesla's reputation rights infringement disputes, and Tesla v. Mr. Han's reputation rights infringement disputes.
It is not difficult to see that the compensation related to winning or losing the lawsuit is negligible for Tesla. However, because of the frequent disputes with car owners, what makes them lose will also be the brand reputation and the purchase confidence of potential consumers. Correspondingly, Tesla's global sales have plummeted.
Moreover, even if the factors of its decline are put aside, the annual car sales of major new energy vehicle manufacturers are in the hundreds of thousands, the gap is not like a natural barrier, and Tesla does not have an advantage compared with the sales of new energy vehicles launched by some traditional car companies.
Source: Easycar.com
The most fatal thing is that when Tao Lin, an executive of Tesla in China, replied to the brake failure incident, she not only did not talk about the problem of Tesla's car itself, but also emphasized that the Chinese people should be educated in operation. Therefore, at that time, Tesla stock also fell in response to the sound, continued to oscillate, although it has rebounded to the previous level, but the impact on Tesla's brand image will also pull a long line.
Moreover, in front of Tesla, there are a series of domestic new energy vehicles step by step. You know, the strength of the major new car-making forces can not be underestimated, and they are narrowing the gap with Tesla in terms of sales and output. Therefore, at least in China, the largest new energy vehicle market, Tesla, which has lost its reputation, has been difficult to occupy the opportunity.
Moreover, Tesla will dump its potential quality problems on customers, which will also make some consumers with national feelings choose to stand against it, and it is almost impossible to choose Tesla, which will also add variables to Tesla's development in China.
epilogue
As analyzed above, Tesla was trapped by production capacity in its early years and almost came to the end of the road, and it is precisely because the development of China is encouraged and supported, and it is revived. In the context of the domestic market economy, Tesla's temporary lead is the unanimous free choice of consumers, which is beyond reproach. However, it is somewhat improper in the handling of the public relations crisis.
Tesla was even ridiculed by netizens, with a taste of "picking up the bowl to eat meat, putting down chopsticks and cursing the mother". From the perspective of consumers, the more critical teslas are in the market, perhaps the more they should reflect on rectification. Opening a legal confrontation with consumers and public opinion confrontation to try to cover up its shortcomings in product quality and user service is obviously contrary to the law of the market and is not wise enough.
The mouth of the defense is better than the defense of the river. Under the gushing public opinion, the glossy data of Tesla's latest financial report still looks a little pale.