On April 21, Tesla released the first quarter of 2022 financial report, in the first quarter of 2022, when the global new crown epidemic was repeated, chip shortages, raw material price increases and other issues put great pressure on the automotive industry, but Tesla still handed over a beautiful answer that far exceeded expectations in terms of revenue and profitability.
Tesla's first-quarter earnings data
According to the financial report, Tesla's total revenue in the first quarter of 2022 was US$18.756 billion (about 121.938 billion yuan), an 81% increase from US$10.389 billion (about 67.542 billion yuan) in the same period of 2021, higher than analysts' expectations of US$17.92 billion; net profit attributable to common shareholders was US$3.318 billion (about 21.571 billion yuan), an increase of 658% year-on-year. Non-GAAP net profit was US$3.736 billion , an increase of 255% year-on-year , and the gross profit margin for bicycles was as high as 32.9%. According to official data, Tesla delivered 310048 new vehicles in the first quarter, an increase of 68% year-on-year (184887 deliveries in the same period last year), of which Tesla Model 3 and Model Y models accounted for 95% of total deliveries (295324 units). Tesla's bicycle gross margin in the first quarter was as high as 32.9%, close to 1/3, that is to say, for every Model Y sold (according to the domestic Model Y price), it can obtain a gross profit of more than 100,000.
Annual installed capacity of Tesla models
Tesla officials say part of the company's revenue growth is due to an increase in the number of cars delivered, as well as an increase in average selling prices. In addition, the financial report data shows that Tesla's operating expense ratio in the first quarter was reduced to less than 10% for the first time. At the same time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla should be able to produce 1.5 million cars in 2022, and the price of some auto parts increased by 20%-30% year-on-year.
Tesla's total orders for vehicles in the United States and gross operating profit
Moreover, Tesla has achieved a revenue of more than $10 billion for 5 consecutive quarters, while three consecutive quarters of revenue have reached a record high in a single quarter, achieved positive profit for 11 consecutive quarters, EPS earnings per share for 5 consecutive quarters hit a record high, adjusted net profit exceeded 1 billion US dollars for 5 consecutive quarters, and the gross profit margin of the automotive business exceeded 30% for 3 consecutive quarters.
The following is an analysis of this financial report data, why Tesla as a new force, but its revenue performance is so exaggerated.
Localization
Everyone knows that after Tesla achieved localization, the price has fallen many times in the short term. The reason is the completion and commissioning of Tesla's Shanghai Super Factory, with the developed automobile industry foundation in the Yangtze River Delta, Tesla has achieved a relatively complete supporting industrial chain in the surrounding areas, and the cost of parts can be further reduced by reducing logistics links. At present, the Shanghai Gigafactory mainly produces Model 3 and Model Y models, of which about 90% of the parts have been localized, which can control its manufacturing costs relatively stably. Previously, Tesla produced by the Shanghai Gigafactory was also exported to more than 10 countries and regions in Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia.
Innovative production
For the selling price of a car, it can be divided into four parts: profit, tax, technology transfer fee and cost, including marketing cost, research and development cost and production cost. Tesla believes that the control of the cost of the car focuses on the automobile factory, and the production efficiency of the factory directly determines the manufacturing cost of the whole vehicle.
For example, Tesla's application on large die-casting machines, although in the early stage of use will relatively increase the cost of expenditure, but in the long run, the dozens of parts are reduced into one, which can continuously dilute the manufacturing cost of this part.
There are also power batteries, according to relevant sources, the current power batteries account for about 30% of the procurement cost of the main engine plant. Therefore, to control the manufacturing cost of the whole vehicle, the problem of battery cost cannot be avoided.
Tesla also has to work hard in this regard, in 2020 battery day, Tesla released the 4680 battery, the battery in the single energy compared to the old battery can have about 5 times the increase, the mileage increased by about 16%, the cost can be reduced by 14%; at the same time, the 4680 battery does not need to install or weld the pole ear, its manufacturing process can be relatively simplified, while the precious metal content is also greatly reduced, the 4680 battery can effectively reduce the cost of battery manufacturing while improving performance. Tesla built a brand new production line for 4680 batteries, and the cost of investment per gigawatt-hour capacity fell by 75%. Previously, Musk announced Tesla's "five-step plan" to reduce battery costs, covering battery design, battery factory construction, positive and negative electrode materials, vehicle integration and other sectors, which is expected to reduce the production cost of bicycles by 69%.
Marketing model
In the past, when buying a car, I had to go to the 4S store, and I had to go to various dealers to compare the price difference, and sometimes I would encounter "profiteers" if I was unlucky. Tesla has abandoned the dealer model and adopted the direct operation model, without being "wool" by dealers, reducing a part of the cost. Manufacturers directly regulate the price, can achieve price unification, the purchase method is also changed to order through the official APP, in the popularity of online shopping now, the sales of this new model will not increase the customer's learning costs, but the openness and transparency of the price has attracted a large number of customers who do not want to bother with price comparison.
If you continue to pay attention to Tesla, you should find that Tesla has basically not done large-scale marketing advertising, according to the relevant data on the investigation of advertising and marketing expenditure of automobile companies, the average expenditure of the traditional automobile manufacturing industry in bicycle advertising and marketing is about 495 US dollars (about 3218 yuan), that is to say, Tesla has invisibly saved a lot of money.
Tesla can always have hot topics, partly because of the discussion caused by the emergence of its innovative technology; negative news about the brand is fermented online; and Musk shows his personal charm on different social media platforms. It can be seen that Tesla makes full use of the characteristics of today's Internet to achieve its publicity purposes, which can be described as saving money and efficient.
summary
With Tesla's Berlin Gigafactory in Germany, it can free up capacity for other markets such as China and the United States, while alleviating the delivery pressure in the European market and improving the delivery speed of European countries. In the case of the epidemic in Shanghai, Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory ushered in the resumption of work, and Musk also said on a domestic social platform that "Tesla China's work progress is very amazing."
Due to factors such as regional wars and epidemics, the global economy is not relatively stable, but under Musk's leadership, Tesla can achieve continuous revenue growth, while continuously innovating in many areas of electric vehicles, and its results are fully experienced in its first quarter earnings report. Although the "Tesla model" is not something that can be copied casually, domestic automakers can still learn from the reasons for Tesla's success and then explore a path of their own development.