Tesla's just-announced financial results for the first quarter of 2022 have once again become the focus of discussion. Because its revenue and net profit far exceeded investors' expectations.
In the past quarter, Tesla recorded $18.8 billion in total revenue, higher than Wall Street's expectation of $17.8 billion, an increase of 81% year-on-year; net profit reached a record $3.3 billion, well above market expectations of $2.15 billion, up 658% year-on-year.
Tesla Q1 major financial report data
Thanks to another record financial performance, Tesla CEO Musk could receive a new $23 billion compensation award. This is the reward for the 9th to 11th of the 12 batches of options that Musk granted in the compensation package he received in 2018.
In the scheme, Musk is given the option to buy 8.7 million shares of Tesla stock at $70.01 per share per lot. Based on 90 percent of Wednesday's closing price of $977.2, a 3-lot of options triggered by record quarterly earnings could cost Musk about $23 billion in revenue.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Tesla has been like an "alternative", with record earnings in the past few quarters. When competitors have to cut or stop production in the process of battling a supply crisis, it uses its software advantages to boldly rewrite the code of general-purpose chips to replace scarce chips, drastically reducing the production impact of pure electric vehicles.
Tesla delivered more than 310,000 new vehicles in the first quarter, up 68% year-over-year, but only achieved a small increase sequentially. On the earnings call, Musk attributed Tesla's record earnings largely to delivery growth and multiple price increases. That brought Q1's auto gross margin to a record 32.9 percent, compared to the same period last year, when Tesla's pretax profit per vehicle delivered in the most recent quarter grew by more than 60 percent to $16,203, or about 104156 renminbi.
Since 2021, Tesla has raised its price more than 6 times in important markets such as China and the United States, and even seen the rare case of 3 consecutive rises in a week. In just one week in mid-March this year, Tesla China raised prices three times, of which the Model Y rear-wheel drive version rose by as much as 15,000 yuan, and the price has risen by more than 40,000 yuan compared with more than half a year ago. Depending on the model and level, Tesla's price increase is about 4% to 10% each time.
Musk also formally responded for the first time to the reasons behind the continuous price increases at the earnings conference, saying that considering Tesla's record profits in the quarter, the price increases seem unreasonable. But he immediately said: "But our car purchase order cycle is very long, and the list of some models has reached next year." As a result, the pricing currently given actually takes into account the possible increases in supply chain costs and logistics costs over the next 6 to 12 months. ”
Musk also said that the cost increase has actually happened, which is also an important reason why Tesla has to raise prices continuously. "Ordering a car now may have to wait until a year later to receive the goods. Obviously, the market demand for products is extremely high, but we are really constrained by production capacity. Musk said.
It can be seen that Tesla's continuous price increases are to cope with higher costs in the next 6 to 12 months, thus protecting orders that cannot be delivered within a year. But it's not fair for users who order cars now and have a chance to receive them soon.
Tesla China's official website shows that due to different versions, the Model Y's pick-up cycle is within 10 to 20 weeks, Model 3 is 16 to 24 weeks, and Chinese users may not be able to pick up the car until the end of the year; the shortage in the United States is more serious, and ordering model Y now may not be able to mention the car until January next year.
Due to objective factors such as global upstream raw material price increases, many electric vehicle manufacturers such as Weilai, Ideal, and Xiaopeng in China have had to choose to increase prices, but frequent continuous price increases only occur in Tesla.
While Tesla made its way through a perfect first quarter with frequent price increases and hot demand, the move may not have had as much of an impact on the second quarter's financial results as the shutdown.
Since March 28, Tesla's world's largest gigafactory, the Shanghai factory, has been shut down for three weeks, and although employees have already entered the factory to start resuming work, it may be days before it reaches full production. Tesla executives noted that the Shanghai plant lost about a month's worth of production.
The Shanghai plant, Tesla's largest factory in the world, shipped 66,000 electric vehicles last month, up 16 percent from February. The plant's cumulative deliveries in 2021 reached 484,100 units, accounting for 51.7% of Tesla's total global deliveries.
Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn said: "Production is recovering at a limited level and we are working to get back to full production as soon as possible. But Musk still insists that Tesla's Q2 deliveries will reach a level similar to Q1, and believes that Tesla's deliveries will increase by more than 50% this year, that is, the annual delivery level of about 1.5 million vehicles.
Musk's confidence is mainly due to the recent announcement of two new tesla factories. On March 22, Tesla's new plant in Berlin began operations, and another new plant in Austin, Texas, also started operations on April 8.
However, the outside world believes that the capacity of the two new factories will take several days to climb, and their opening business may not be able to make up for the losses caused by the Shanghai factory. Therefore, it is expected that the shutdown of the Shanghai factory will drag down Tesla's performance this quarter.
Musk also said that if the problem of mass production cannot be solved in early 2023, Tesla's own 4680 battery will pose a risk to next year's production. "But we're very confident about that." Musk said. For now, Tesla will continue to use the 2170 battery to produce vehicles in Texas.
Musk also revealed on the earnings call that he mentioned the robo-taxi project at the opening event of his new plant in Austin. Tesla began developing the driverless taxi without steering wheels and pedals in early April, and next year will host an event featuring self-driving taxis, with the goal of mass production in 2024, he said.
In addition, Tesla's revenue from sales of regulatory credits to other automakers in the first quarter increased 31% year-over-year to $679 million, strongly boosting revenue and net profit.