Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1764
The first financial report after the price war: Gross profit hit a four-year low, Model Y sales surpassed Corolla
On July 20, Tesla handed over its first full financial report after experiencing the first price war in the electric vehicle market.
Tesla’s price cuts this year began in the Chinese market, and then spread to the world in the first quarter, including its largest market, the United States. The second quarter is the first quarter that can fully reflect the impact of Tesla’s price reduction on gross profit.
As expected, Tesla’s gross profit further dropped to 18.2%, a 1.6% decline from the first quarter, slightly higher than the market’s expected 18.1%, the lowest point of Tesla’s gross profit in the past four years.
Tesla’s revenue and net profit in the second quarter were US$24.97 billion and US$1.693 billion, respectively, a year-on-year increase of 42% and 25%, respectively, both slightly higher than market expectations (US$24.22 billion and US$1.6 billion).
These figures have stabilized the confidence of the capital market in Tesla. After Tesla went through a complete price war, its gross profit margin did not drop too much, and its sales volume increased as expected.
In the second quarter, Tesla sold 466,000 vehicles, a 10% increase from the first quarter. And due to the price drop, Model Y sold 267,200 units in the first quarter of this year, surpassing Toyota Corolla (266,400 units sold in the first quarter) to become the world’s best-selling model. The global average price of Model Y is about 300,000 yuan, nearly double that of Corolla, which has an average price of about 160,000 yuan. This is also the first time that pure electric vehicles have replaced fuel vehicles and become the quarterly champion of global single-model sales.
After releasing its first-quarter financial report in April this year, Tesla has slightly raised the prices of some models in markets such as China and the United States, which may be to protect gross profits. But in the earnings conference call early this morning, Musk reiterated his concerns about the macroeconomic situation: when the economic situation is not good, people will pay more attention to the price when buying cars. Musk believes that Tesla needs to keep the price of cars “in an affordable range” for people. He said: “Tesla will continue to cut prices.” But he did not disclose the specific time and extent.
Shortly after Musk said “continue to cut prices”, Tesla’s stock price fell rapidly by 5% from the sideways state after the financial report was released.
The window period of models and technologies is not over yet
The stock price drop in the middle of the earnings call may also be related to Musk’s failure to disclose too many details about Tesla’s next-stage plan, or to release progress that exceeded market expectations.
In the first quarter earnings conference call, Musk once said that Tesla’s first new passenger car model in four years (not counting the facelift), Cybertruck may start small batch deliveries in the fourth quarter of this year, and the total delivery volume in 2024 will be about 250,000. Last week, the first Cybertruck vehicle officially rolled off the assembly line at the Texas factory.
At today’s second-quarter financial report, when analysts asked “What is the demand for Cybertruck?” Musk did not disclose specific figures, only saying that “orders far exceeded expectations.”
“Later Auto” previously learned from one of Tesla’s exclusive suppliers that Tesla requires suppliers to start supplying Cybertruck parts in small batches from October this year, and reach a weekly supply of at least 6,000 parts next year. Based on this calculation, the delivery of Cybertruck may reach 300,000 next year.
Analysts did not ask questions about the planned new Tesla model whose price may drop to more than 100,000 yuan, and Tesla did not actively disclose the progress.
In addition to the model relay, the market is also concerned about the mass production progress of the 4680 battery and the automatic driving technology.
The 4680 battery can theoretically bring more gross profit and price reduction to Tesla. When releasing this technology in 2020, Tesla once said that the 4680 battery can reduce the cost of the battery by 56%, and reduce the cost of the whole vehicle by about 25%.
Musk said in the earnings call that the production of 4680 batteries in the second quarter increased by 80% compared with the first quarter, and it is expected that the production will reach a stable state when Cybertruck is delivered in batches.
In terms of autonomous driving, Musk maintained the goal of fully autonomous driving by the end of this year. He claimed that by the end of this year, FSD will be better than human drivers, and Tesla is currently discussing the possibility of licensing FSD technology with another car company. This points to another ambition of Tesla, which not only wants to manufacture and sell cars, but also wants to become a smart electric vehicle infrastructure supplier. Tesla opened its own charging network in May this year. In June, GM, Ford and Mercedes-Benz signed contracts with Tesla to adopt the same charging standard as Tesla in North America and connect to the Tesla charging network.
Unlike most of its competitors, after entering a period of rapid growth in sales, Tesla did not launch more new models faster, but continued to invest and optimize in some places that consumers cannot directly see, such as transforming manufacturing processes and processes, redesigning production lines, and developing new battery solutions.
This also means that Tesla has to overcome more difficult technologies, take greater R&D risks, and turn them into competitive advantages at a slower speed. But once its product and technology vision is fulfilled, it will give Tesla a big lead.
This kind of development strategy makes Tesla have periodic “empty window phases”. Now is such a period: old products have been sold for a long time, and new models and technologies have not yet made great efforts.
Many of Tesla’s ongoing new plans have the effect of reducing costs and enhancing competitiveness in the long run, but have a certain negative impact on operations in the short term.
In the second-quarter financial report, Tesla said that in order to improve the 4680 yield rate and expand production, operating expenses increased in the second quarter of this year. This is another reason for the decline in profit margins in addition to price cuts.
Musk also mentioned at the financial report that in order to mass-produce Cybertruck, Tesla will close the Texas factory in the third quarter of this year to upgrade the production line. This will affect Tesla’s production in the third quarter of this year. Musk expects Tesla’s total deliveries this year to be about 1.8 million vehicles, which is lower than the previous market forecast of 1.9 million vehicles.
Tesla has previously fulfilled many seemingly unconstrained technological assumptions. Whenever some new ideas land, Tesla and the industry driven by it may enter a new stage of development.
After smart electric vehicles, Tesla is now investing in humanoid robots in the longer term. At the second-quarter financial report meeting, Musk said that Tesla has produced less than 10 humanoid robots Optimus, which have been tried out in the Tesla factory. Musk predicts that Optimus will play a practical role next year.
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