Source / Sutu.com (sootoo123)
Author / Hao Danchun
Focusing on the keywords such as economic recession, layoffs, Twitter , robot concept, human brain engineering concept, , , which has never lacked topics, , Tesla and Musk randomly "draw the ground into a prison" in the center of public opinion...
Recently, Tesla (TSLA, stock price of US$815.12, market value of US$844.783 billion) on the other side of the ocean announced its second quarter financial report for 2022.
financial report shows that Tesla achieved revenue of US$16.934 billion in the second quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 42% over the second quarter of last year, exceeding the analyst's forecast of US$16.88 billion; net profit (GAAP) was US$2.259 billion, a year-on-year increase of 98%.
It is worth mentioning that Tesla's stock price also continued to rise with the release of its financial report on on July 21, Beijing time. As of the closing of US stocks on July 22, Beijing time, Tesla closed at US$815.12 per share, up 9.78%, with a total market value of US$844.8 billion.
However, there is a hidden crisis in this seemingly "very-loving" answer sheet.
Tesla is still running, but its speed is much slower
Data shows that Tesla delivered a total of 25.47 new cars throughout the Q2, a month-on-month decrease of 17.83%, the first quarter-on-month decline since 2020. Judging from Tesla's annual delivery expectation of 1.5 million yuan, Tesla, with a total delivery volume of 560,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, will need more than 900,000 vehicles to be achieved in the second half of the year. In this regard, many industry insiders have publicly stated: Even for Tesla, this number is still full of challenges.
Not only that, Tesla's "10,000-year sales king" has also been easily taken off by BYD recently.
In the production and sales report released by BYD at the beginning of the month, its sales of new energy vehicles in the first half of the year reached 641,400, a year-on-year increase of 315%. It successfully overtakes Tesla and becomes the global new energy vehicle sales champion in the first half of the year. It is reported that Tesla's Shanghai factory was suspended for a long time during the epidemic this year, which led to BYD's overtake. "Changes" such as
also directly led to a significant decline in Tesla's operating income, net profit, etc. on the month-on-month.
Although Tesla's Q2 operating income was slightly higher than expected, it was lower than the revenue in the first quarter of this year, down 9.71% month-on-month; adjusted net profit was US$2.62 billion, down 29.87% month-on-month, and profitability slowed down significantly, with the year-on-year growth rate in the previous quarter as high as 255%.
In addition, in the second quarter of this year, the gross profit of Tesla's automotive business increased by 41% year-on-year to US$4.081 billion, a significant decline compared with the first quarter. The gross profit margin of the automobile business under the GAAP caliber in the second quarter was 27.9%, lower than 32.9% in the first quarter and 28.4% in the second quarter of last year. This is also the first time that Tesla's automobile business gross profit margin has been below 30% in the past four quarters. There are many reasons for the decline in
, and the rise in raw material prices is a direct influencing factor. This pressure has also shifted to the product side, and Tesla's repeated hikes in the price of major models this year have also become the best proof.
In other words, in the seemingly glorious answer sheet, Tesla's "halo" is fading.
Under "invisible poverty", Tesla's struggle
In fact, Tesla's second quarter was not easy.
From an internal perspective, in June this year, Musk issued a warning: "The economic situation is very bad, Tesla needs to lay off about 10% of its employees and suspend global recruitment." Since then, Tesla has successively reported layoffs around the world, and the hardest hit areas for layoffs are the autonomous driving business departments that are seriously burning money and cannot generate actual economic benefits for the time being.
On July 14, Andrej Karpathy, head of Tesla Autopilot, announced his resignation. His resignation has caused new thoughts on Tesla's long-term strategy. Musk's explanation for the layoffs is concerns about the US economy.
In addition, according to Tesla's financial report, its free cash flow has only US$621 million left, a sharp drop of about 70% from US$2.2 billion in the first quarter. The results show that Tesla also faces real problems that plague traditional automakers and worrying financial situations. To improve cash flow , Tesla converted about 75% of its bitcoin assets into fiat currencies, and its balance sheet increased by $936 million in cash.
In order to cope with this "embarrassment", Tesla has also increased its production capacity upgrade.
, in addition to the expansion of the production capacity of the Shanghai factory under the pressure of the epidemic (the latest plan is to produce 750,000 vehicles per year, which is Tesla's current highest production capacity super factory), two super factory in Berlin, Germany and Texas, the United States, have been put into production one after another. It is reported that the annual production capacity of the factory in California, the United States is 650,000 vehicles, while the annual production capacity of the factory in Berlin, Germany and the Texas factory in the United States exceeds 250,000 vehicles.
However, Currently, none of the above-mentioned factories can produce batteries themselves, and new factories that alleviate production capacity pressure are basically mediocre. According to ArrowP, the supply restrictions in the automotive industry chain will continue until 2024, and it is expected that the total global automobile sales will drop to 79 million units this year (81.05 million units in 2021).
It is true that has ensured its future growth to a certain extent, but the surge in global supply chain and raw material costs has also brought about growth in Tesla's expenditure. So far, Tesla's total operating expenses in the second quarter were 1.77 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.6%.
In addition, from the outside, the robots, pickup trucks, Model 2, etc. that Musk promised have not been implemented and has repeatedly missed tickets. This means that Tesla's previous gains of pioneer advantages are gradually decreasing, and it is understandable that the above-mentioned "beat BYD" situation is even more understandable.
In addition to the cloud above Tesla's head, Musk himself has also been in trouble recently. The acquisition of Twitter is pending and will soon go to court with the Twitter team, which has attracted the attention of many investment banks. Analysts believe that if a mandatory acquisition is ruled, Musk may have to sell more Tesla shares to raise funds, which will hit Tesla's stock price in that case.
After passing the dark and roughness of the second quarter, can Tesla usher in a bright and smooth journey?
data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows that in the first half of the year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 2.661 million and 2.6 million respectively, an increase of 1.2 times year-on-year, and the market share reached 21.6%.
At present, the sales volume of BYD Han, with an average price of more than 250,000 yuan in the market in June (25,209 units) is almost the same as that of Model 3 (25,788 units). "Wei Xiaoli", a new car-making force that also takes the mid-to-high-end route, has also gained a foothold in the Wanqi Club and continues to drive towards the next milestone. The competition Tesla has to face is becoming increasingly difficult.
Fortunately, Tesla's delivery has begun to slow down. According to data previously released by the China Passenger Car Association, Tesla China delivered a total of 78,900 vehicles in June, a record high. At the same time, in terms of product strength, the FSD, Autopilot and smart cockpit systems developed by Tesla are regarded as the originator of automotive intelligence; while the intelligence level of BYD models has been questioned.
For Tesla, the growth myth can be destroyed, and the Iron King throne can also belong to others. But in the critical stage when the midfield war for new energy vehicles has just begun, how Tesla can maintain strong market demand during the new model window period and handle the "relationship with people" well in the process of reducing costs is also an important issue it needs to face.
Of course, Tesla's "bad" performance in the second quarter is likely to be affected by the market, including production cuts and suspensions, supply of parts and price increases in raw materials. Therefore, whether Tesla's "halo" will really fade away will be answered by facts in the next two quarters.
