In the early morning of April 21, Tesla released its 2022 first quarter earnings report. At a time when factories were shutting down, costs were rising, supply and demand were strained, and the industry was sluggish, Tesla still handed over a Q1 report card that greatly exceeded Wall Street's expectations, and its revenue in the quarter increased by 81% year-on-year to $18.8 billion, another record high.
Revenue indicators and profitability indicators both exceeded expectations, and there was no sign of stepping on the brakes.
The profit margin of all OEMs is the first
From the financial data of recent quarters, it can be seen that Tesla's development pace is generally very stable and has entered a relatively stable state. Since the first quarter of 2021, despite the challenge of supply chain shortages caused by the epidemic, Tesla has achieved quarter-on-quarter growth in revenue and profit for five consecutive quarters, constantly refreshing the historical record.
Even under the pressure of the supply chain and the increasingly fierce market competition, Tesla is still the best new energy vehicle company to sell.
It is worth noting that Tesla's large increase in revenue and profit is also related to the continuous price adjustment strategy recently implemented.
In the past year, Tesla Model 3 and Model Y have adjusted prices more than ten times in a row, and the average price has increased by more than 20%. Compared with other big car manufacturers, Tesla, which is "not worried about selling", seems to be able to transfer the cost pressure to consumers more directly.
According to the financial report, in Q1 this year, Tesla produced 305,000 cars, delivering more than 310,000 vehicles, with a year-on-year growth rate of 67.7%. From the perspective of model structure, model S/X delivered 15,000 units and Model 3/Y delivered 295,000 units.
Judging from the financial report data, the effect of the implementation of the price increase strategy is indeed very significant. In particular, gross margin increased by nearly 2 percentage points per quarter, exceeding 30.6% in Q4 last year. By the quarter of Q1 this year, the gross profit margin of Tesla's automobile business even reached 32.9%,
The gross profit margin of nearly 1/3 means that Tesla can obtain a gross profit of nearly 100,000 yuan or more for every car sold.
Tesla's operating profit margin is already the first in the whole OEM, surpassing the traditional car companies, and the earning power of new energy vehicles is beyond doubt. Combined with the monetization potential of software, services, and other commodities, there is still room for profitability to break through.
In addition, Musk has also buried some future growth points worth looking forward to. First, he said Tesla is continuing to develop a suite of advanced driver assistance systems for fully autonomous driving, aiming to launch it by the end of this year, and encourages consumers to subscribe to the service.
At the same time, Tesla has begun to develop a fully autonomous taxi without a steering wheel and pedals since the beginning of April this year, with the goal of achieving mass production in 2024. Next year, Tesla will hold a dedicated self-driving taxi event to promote the new model.
The test of production capacity under the epidemic
Expanding production capacity is the core proposition of Tesla in 2022. Musk said on the earnings call that Tesla should be able to produce 1.5 million cars in 2022, or about 60% year-on-year growth.
Despite the good first quarter, due to the severe situation of the epidemic in Shanghai, tesla gigafactory has been shut down since the end of March, and the resumption of work has been repeatedly delayed.
Some industry insiders estimate that the shutdown of Tesla's Shanghai gigafactory is predicted to cause the company to lose more than 35,000 electric vehicle production capacity. As far as the supply chain of battery materials is concerned, difficulties in logistics and transportation still exist, and such problems delay the delivery of various battery metals in domestic and foreign markets, and also affect the delivery of materials required for processing.
Such a situation is very likely to drag down the financial report figures in Q2 and even the financial report for the whole year.
At the shareholder meeting, Musk made it clear that in the case of shortages of components and semiconductor chips, Tesla factories have been undercapacitated for several consecutive quarters, and this expectation will continue for another year. "If consumers order cars now, they may need to be prepared to wait a year."
Fortunately, after three weeks of suspension of production, on April 19, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory finally announced the official resumption of work and production, and 8,000 employees have arrived.
Song Gang, senior director of manufacturing at the Shanghai factory, said in an interview with the media, "We will gradually climb the production capacity in the next three or four days to the level of full production in the overall single shift." Tesla said that there is still about a week of inventory of vehicle parts, and is currently actively promoting the resumption of work and production of more than 100 suppliers with the support of relevant government departments and smoothing the logistics chain.
But despite the resumption of work, this situation will continue for some time, and the supply chain will not be able to return to normal levels for a short time.
Overall, this is a Q1 financial report card that reinforces faith, and the gross profit margin can become the world's first, of which the price increase is the root cause. As far as Tesla is concerned, the price increase has not inhibited demand, but has driven the revenue and gross profit margin to exceed expectations, and strengthened the market's cognition of the company's strong market discourse power and excellent profitability.
In 2022, the company's production capacity baton will shift from China to two factories in Berlin, Germany and Austin, Texas, although there is no new model in terms of products, the 4680 battery will be an assist. The driving force for the company's growth is still continuous, and the pace of growth is still orderly.