Shentucar original
Trainee Author | Liu Dandan
Edit | dawn
On April 21, Tesla released its first quarter 2022 financial report.
Despite multiple factors such as the epidemic, chips, supply chain and rising raw material costs, Tesla's total revenue in the first quarter of 2022 still achieved an 81% year-on-year increase of $18.756 billion; total gross profit was $5.460 billion, an increase of 147% from $2.215 billion in the same period last year, and gross profit margin reached 29.1%.
What is even crazier than the two indicators of revenue and total gross profit is that tesla's gross profit margin reached 32.9% in the first quarter, 6 percentage points higher than the same period last year.
This means that for every model 3 rear-drive version sold (the official website is priced at 279,900 yuan), Tesla can get more than 90,000 yuan of gross profits - Tesla's ability to make money is getting stronger and stronger.
But that's not enough.
CEO Musk, who said in July last year that he would no longer attend the earnings call, actually "made a comeback" this time. On the earnings call, the keyword "expand production capacity" was repeatedly mentioned, and Musk said that Tesla's sales will grow by 60% in 2022, and will grow by more than 50% annually in the next few years, with sales reaching 20 million vehicles in 2030.
Later this year, the Texas plant will be able to produce model Y with both a 4680 structured battery pack and a 2170 cell non-structural battery pack; in 2023, Tesla will achieve mass production of Cyberruck and the debut of the robot Optimus; in 2024, Tesla will mass-produce a model dedicated to the Robotaxi.
Expansion, change, new products, Tesla through the first quarter earnings report, once again showed its ambitions to the outside world.
No car company is more profitable than Tesla
Like other car companies, due to the impact of the epidemic, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory suffered a shutdown crisis at the end of the first quarter. Tesla CFO Kirkhorn revealed that the Shanghai factory lost about a month of production. However, from the data point of view, this round of suspension did not have much impact on the performance of the first quarter.
According to the financial report data, tesla's total revenue of $18.756 billion in the first quarter was $16.861 billion, an increase of 87% year-on-year; revenue from the sale of carbon credits was $679 million, an increase of 31% year-on-year; energy generation and storage revenue was $616 million, an increase of 25% year-on-year.
In terms of profit, Tesla broke all the records set last year, with operating profit fivefold to $3.603 billion, an operating margin of 19.2%, and net profit attributable to common shareholders reaching $3.318 billion, up 685% year-on-year.
Source / Tesla earnings
What is this concept? Tesla's first-quarter revenue was about 11 times that of NIO's Q4 2021 revenue and three times its full-year revenue last year.
There is no harm without contrast. Looking around, the only thing that may have slipped in Tesla's first-quarter report card is debt.
Tesla's operating cash flow (free cash flow) after deducting capital expenditures in the first quarter was $2.2 billion, and total debt other than auto and energy product financing fell to less than $100 million, the data showed.
Source / Tesla earnings
Revenue and profit have both grown, even showing multiple growth, while getting rid of the burden of debt, tesla attributed such a brilliant performance to the increase in car delivery and the increase in average sales prices.
Data show that in the first quarter, Tesla vehicle deliveries were 310048, an increase of 68% year-on-year. Among them, the Model S and Model X models are 14724 units; the Model 3 and Model Y models are 295324 units.
Source / pexels
In terms of price, Tesla has become a "wealth management product" and has the strongest pricing power. In just a few months, the price of the Model 3 after-wheel drive version on sale has risen from less than 240,000 yuan to 279,900 yuan, and various versions of the Model Y have also shown different increases, even attracting scalpers to enter the market to resell Tesla orders.
Even due to the price increase, consumers' desire to buy Tesla has further increased.
The inventory cycle is a strong proof. The earnings report shows that Tesla's global average inventory cycle in the first quarter has been reduced to 3 days. That is to say, Tesla basically does not have inventory, and the new car is delivered when it arrives at the store.
In stark contrast, data released by the China Automobile Dealers Association shows that the inventory warning index of Chinese auto dealers in March 2022 was 63.6%, up 8.1% year-on-year, and most brands had serious inventory problems.
Even if the price rises, Tesla's dominance in the market cannot be underestimated. It is worth noting that the current Tesla's automotive gross profit margin in the first quarter has reached 32.9%, and in the future, with the large-scale increase in production capacity and the stability of raw material prices, Tesla, which has been committed to reducing manufacturing costs, is expected to further increase the gross profit margin of bicycles.
No car company is more profitable than Tesla.
Capacity expansion is the key word in 2022
Before the earnings report, Wall Street analysts had already predicted Tesla's first-quarter performance. For this financial report meeting, the focus of external attention is more on the future development of the company's business.
"Expand production capacity" is the answer given by Tesla. On the earnings call, Musk said that the current problem facing Tesla is not limited demand, but limited production capacity.
At present, Tesla has four super factories in Shanghai, Fremont, Berlin and Texas in charge of vehicle manufacturing. Among them, according to the data of CITIC Construction Investment, the annual production capacity of the Shanghai super factory that has matured and operated is 750,000 units, the Fremont plant is 600,000 vehicles, and the global total production capacity is 1.35 million vehicles.
Although this production capacity has exceeded most car companies, it is not enough for the current Tesla. For sales in 2022, Tesla has given a full-year growth forecast of 50%-60%, corresponding to sales of about 1.5 million vehicles in 2022.
However, due to the impact of the epidemic and the lack of cores, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory has been shut down for more than 20 days this year, and according to its weekly output of 16,000 vehicles, this round of production suspension has brought at least about 50,000 production capacity losses to Tesla. On April 19, Tesla's Shanghai factory announced the resumption of work, more than 8,000 employees put into work, and batteries, motors, and vehicle assembly began to gradually recover. However, in the view of industry analyst Guo Mingxi, due to the double-shift work system becoming a one-shift work system, Tesla can only return to the pre-production level as soon as mid-May.
Can Tesla's current production capacity support the completion of the 2022 goal?
Source / pexels
Musk himself is confident about this issue.
Production and delivery of Tesla's new Berlin Gigafactory and Texas Gigafactory started in March and April this year. "We have an experienced team and have learned a lot from the Shanghai Gigafactory." Musk believes that the ramp-up of capacity in Berlin and Texas will not be too slow.
At the same time, Musk also revealed on the conference call that the Shanghai Gigafactory has "returned from revenge", Q2 may create a new production record, and Q3 and Q4 digital performance will be better.
Looking back now, perhaps the biggest problem Tesla faces now is the impact of supply chains and raw materials.
Before this year, the problem of car companies was the shortage of chips, and the problem of raw materials for power batteries was not prominent. However, at the beginning of 2022, under the influence of multiple factors, power batteries have become the biggest obstacle for car companies. Taking lithium carbonate as an example, the price of lithium carbonate in early 2021 was only 55,000 yuan / ton, and rose to 266,000 yuan / ton at the end of the year. In March this year, the price of lithium carbonate exceeded the mark of 500,000 yuan / ton, up nearly 70% from the beginning of 2022.
In order to solve this problem, in late 2021, Tesla signed a four-year supply agreement with upstream battery raw material company Syrah Resources for a total of 8,000 tons of African graphite to cope with the cost impact of soaring upstream raw material prices. At the end of March, Tesla was also revealed to have signed a "secret agreement" with Vale, the world's largest nickel producer, to secure nickel supplies.
We do not have accurate data on how many raw materials these measures have alleviated, but it is certain that Tesla is still under huge cost pressure, and even Musk has publicly said on Twitter: "Lithium prices have risen to crazy levels, tesla may have to directly carry out large-scale mining and refining business, unless the cost pressure is alleviated." ”
However, Musk said that tesla will not continue to raise prices in the next six months, and the current pricing has covered the costs that may be increased in the future. If the price of raw materials falls further, Tesla will even cut prices again. But in fact, Tesla can not control the macro economy, the speed of mining and refining does not increase, the cost of raw materials is likely to continue to rise in price.
"If you're waiting for the best Tesla, you'll always be waiting." On the earnings call, Musk once again told everyone Amway that the best time to start Tesla is always now.
*Caption image from pexels.