Posted Jan 26, 2022, 10:54 PMUpdated on Jan 27, 2022 at 6:53 am
In 2020, Tesla was finally become profitable . Its trajectory is now insolent. In 2021, the automaker managed to overcome the semiconductor crisis. It posted a record profit of 5.5 billion dollars over the year thanks to an operating margin doubled to 12%, a feat in the traditional automobile industry. At 54 billion dollars, its automotive revenues soared 71% in the last quarter, in the wake of exceptional sales . At this rate, Tesla could well overtake its high-end rivals, Mercedes and BMW, within a year or two.
On Wall Street on Wednesday, Tesla’s stock price edged higher after the earnings release. Since the beginning of the year, the action has lost 11% of its value, after a spectacular increase for two years.
“There can no longer be any doubt about the viability and profitability of electric vehicles,” writes the group founded by Elon Musk in a press release. “With vehicle sales up 87% in 2021, we also managed to deliver the highest quarterly operating margin of any automaker, according to the latest data.” This “shows that electric vehicles can be more profitable than thermal engines”, if a limited number of vehicles are produced and if appropriate production methods are adopted. The average cost of building a Tesla fell to $36,000 by year-end.
Supply crisis
Tesla has managed to impose itself in a particularly difficult context for car manufacturers. The shortage of semiconductors, linked to the post-pandemic economic recovery, penalizes manufacturers, including Volkswagen, which has declared sluggish sales early January. Elon Musk said he had partially solved the problem using new chip models and adapting its software.
The group, which comes from move to texas , was also affected by the crisis, although to a lesser degree. “Our own factories have operated below their maximum capacity for several quarters, mainly because of the supply crisis” in semiconductors and other components, writes the manufacturer. This situation “will probably continue during the year 2022”.
In a conference with analysts, Elon Musk confirmed that the factories in Austin and Berlin began producing their very first vehicles at the end of last year. All that remains now is to speed up production, despite the disorganization of global supply chains.
Autonomous driving
At the same time, Tesla is stepping up its efforts to perfect its driver assistance software. Called “Full Self-Driving”, or fully autonomous driving, the latter does not really match the description, according to analysts. The driver of a Tesla equipped with this software must keep their hands on the wheel and be ready to intervene at all times. American road safety opened an investigation , last summer, after several accidents involving Tesla equipped with this software.
“My personal estimate is that we will reach this level of completely autonomous driving this year,” Elon Musk said on Wednesday. “I would be shocked if we don’t reach that level where software drives safer than a human. Shocked,” he said, adding that human beings don’t drive so well.
For now, this software is tested in beta version by 60,000 drivers in the United States, according to Tesla. Elon Musk predicted in 2019 that a fleet of one million robot taxis would be deployed by 2020. This did not happen. The boss does not admit to being discouraged. “It’s no small feature. This is perhaps the most profound software change in history,” he says. If Tesla has its way, sales of this software should show up in its accounts next year.
No new products in 2022
Tesla will not produce new vehicles in 2022, its CEO has announced. The production of Cybertruck, a pick-up with a futuristic design , was due to go into production in 2021. But the chip shortage has upended the automaker’s priorities, according to Elon Musk. “If we introduced new vehicles, total production would decrease,” he says. Tesla chose to focus on producing existing vehicles despite the shortage.
“The Cybertruck is expected to launch in early 2023,” said Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities. In the meantime, Tesla has every interest in ramping up production and marketing of the Model Y, a high-end car that looks like an SUV – and comes with a hefty margin. Tesla has also set itself the goal of growing faster in the energy sector, with its solar panel and home battery kits.
This does not prevent him from carrying out, in parallel, longer-term projects. Elon Musk thus boasts of his humanoid robot project , christened “Optimus”. In a few years, robots could make more money for Tesla than cars, he envisioned.