According to Tesla's recent earnings report, its operating profit margin in the third quarter of 2021 is the highest among all OEMs, which may be because the company has effectively reduced the cost of selling a vehicle.
For many years, many people thought that Tesla would never be profitable, because from past experience, pure electric models are structurally difficult to make a profit, such as battery costs are very expensive. One of the main reasons why many OEMs have been slow to launch pure electric models is the need to bear huge cost pressures.
However, Tesla said it still believes that manufacturing innovations that combine models for specific markets with dedicated factories are a viable solution to the problem of the cost of pure electric production. From Tesla's statistics of the various brands of the comparison chart, we can see that this scheme seems to be effective.
Tesla also revealed that its cost of sales per vehicle has fallen to about $36,000 in the fourth quarter of 2021, or about 230,000 yuan, including all costs and expenses directly related to the production of the product. In the past, we knew that Tesla did not advertise or market like traditional car manufacturers, which can save a lot of operating costs, and the information disclosed in this financial report allows us to see that Tesla has also saved a lot of money in other aspects.
The EV maker added: "We believe that the projects we are currently working on, including large castings, structural battery packs, 4680 batteries and many others, will help us continue to minimize product costs."
Considering the starting price at which Tesla currently sells in the U.S., the $36,000 cost is quite substantial. When Tesla's cheapest entry-level model, the Model 3, first started selling, it started at $44,990, or about 286,000 yuan, and prices rose rapidly. In fact, none of the other Tesla new cars currently start at $50,000. For example, the Model Y starts at about $60,000, or about 380,000 yuan, while the new Model S and X start at $95,000 and $105,000, respectively.