htmlOn October 20, Tesla released its third quarter financial report for 2022, turning the tables against the wind after the epidemic fluctuated.
Tesla's total revenue in the third quarter was US$21.45 billion (about 155.46 billion yuan), with increasing 56% year-on-year; net profit attributable to common shareholders was US$3.29 billion, a year-on-year increase of 103%, achieving profits for 13 consecutive quarters.
In comparison, although China's leading new car-making forces "Wei Xiaoli" and Leapmotor achieved equally impressive performance in Q3 in terms of growth rate, even far surpassing Tesla, there is still a gap in revenue.
Specifically, NIO 's total revenue in Q3 2022 was 9.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 116.6%; Xiaopeng Motors 's total revenue was 5.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 187.4%; Ideal Auto 's total revenue was 7.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 209.7%.
The revenues of the three auto companies are still less than one-sixth of Tesla, and the single gap is quite huge.
Under the interference of many unfavorable external factors such as the epidemic and shutdown of , Tesla once found it difficult to avoid the influence of the trend and made less impressive results in the second quarter. But after the halftime, it is regrouping, learning lessons, and then bursting out with new potential.
00 million European Automobile believes that Tesla's layout for the market and supply chain is enough to provide a textbook-style development blueprint in the current turbulent wave of intelligence and electrification. However, at a time when Tesla's production capacity was once limited and the global division of labor was becoming increasingly refined, for car companies, strengthening industrial cooperation and differentiated development advantages will have more development significance than blindly catching up with the strong.
financial report is impressive, but it is not as expected
Tesla's third-quarter financial report data is very impressive.
In terms of revenue, operating profit and free cash flow , Tesla set a record, achieving a leading industry operating profit margin of 17.2%, and free cash flow also reached US$3.3 billion.
Tesla hit a single quarter high in terms of automobile production capacity and delivery volume, with a total of more than 365,000 cars produced and 343,000 cars delivered during the period. The record of
may benefit from the improved logistics and supply chain bottlenecks, which has led Tesla to transition to a more balanced delivery and production structure in the third quarter.
At the same time, in the third quarter after the restart of the epidemic, Tesla increased the weekly production capacity of the super factories in Fremont and Shanghai, and the production capacity of the super factories in Berlin and Texas is also rising steadily. After the improvement of parts supply issues to a certain extent, Tesla's output at each of its super factory hit a record high.
However, compared with previous years, Tesla's gross profit margin was not ideal. In the third quarter, , Tesla's auto gross profit margin was 27.9%, lower than 30.5% in the same period last year. This is also the second consecutive quarter in Tesla's gross profit margin was less than 30%.
Tesla said that the inflation rate of raw material costs, as well as the reduction in efficiency brought about by the Berlin Gigafactory, Texas Gigafactory, and 4680 battery production climb, have all affected profit margins.
Despite this, Tesla can already match the BBA in terms of profitability - BMW Group's net profit in the second quarter was 3.43 billion euros, Daimler Group's net profit in the second quarter was 3.2 billion euros, and with Tesla's lower delivery volume, its net profit is already flush with the two. After the financial report of
was announced, Tesla's stock price rose rapidly in after-hours trading, with rising by close to 3%, and then quickly plunged and turned to a decline, with a drop of nearly 7%. As of the close of US stock on October 19, Eastern Time, Tesla's total market value was US$695.76 billion. Previously, Tesla had fallen by nearly 23% for two consecutive weeks in October, and its total market value evaporated by nearly US$190 billion (about RMB 1.4 trillion). The market performance of
may be caused by Tesla's third quarter net profit being lower than market expectations. Tesla CEO Musk said at the third-quarter earnings call that Tesla may conduct $5 billion to $10 billion in stock buybacks.
However, Musk said Tesla will have an epic end of year, with good estimates of demand in the fourth quarter, and Tesla will not cut production in any way regardless of recession or not.
will make money and spend
In terms of financial performance in the third quarter, although the gross profit margin of 27.9% is not as good as the past, its strict evaluation still seems nitpicking.
In fact, every financial report season, people are used to Tesla's "shot" of a number of car companies with outstanding results. Especially in terms of money-making ability, Tesla is undoubtedly the world's highest profit margin. The methods behind it have been constantly analyzing and learning for followers.
Looking at the automobile manufacturing industry, taking China as an example, in the first half of 2022, the car company with the highest gross profit margin in China - Changan Automobile , with a gross profit margin of only 19.8%; Great Wall Motor followed closely with a gross profit margin of 18.4%; there were only 5 car companies with a gross profit margin of more than 10% in the first half of the year.
Globally, even the world's leading car companies represented by Mercedes-Benz , BMW , and Audi , their gross profit margins in 2021 will only be 12.7%, 17.6% and 10.7% respectively. In this way, Tesla's gross profit margin is undoubtedly an enviable existence among global auto companies.
In comparison, hard technology companies and Internet companies with stronger technological attributes have much more profit margins.
Apple leads the hard technology industry with a gross profit margin of more than 40% all year round, with a gross profit margin of 43.3% in Q3 2022; while Google parent company Alphabet, with a gross profit margin of 56.6% in Q2 2022.
In this way, the automobile manufacturing industry, which has leap to higher technological attributes, has its driving force not only comes from the increase in consumer demand, but also comes from the temptation of real money.
The trend of electrification and intelligence is also a major opportunity for car companies to evolve themselves, improve production capacity efficiency and comprehensive competitive strength.
In this change, smart electric car companies represented by Tesla have already taken the lead. As for how to improve the technological attributes of manufacturing companies, Tesla has actually written its operation methods into its financial report projects.
In the field of production and manufacturing, Tesla's Texas Super Factory began to produce Model Y in early 2022, and has adopted the structure of integrated die-casting molding of the front and rear parts of the vehicle body and a structural battery pack.
Although this move increases cost expenditure in the short term, in the long run, Tesla will reduce more than 170 independent components for each vehicle during the production process, greatly improving production efficiency, and will continue to dilute manufacturing costs in the future.
Musk also said at the call that the cost of the upcoming third-generation automotive platform will be half or less than that of the 3/Y platform. Although the launch time is to be determined, sales are expected to exceed the sum of all other Tesla vehicles, and may directly impact models such as Volkswagen ID.3, AION S.
In order to improve the intelligent attributes of vehicles, Tesla has been "unprofessional" to invest in vehicle software upgrades.
Currently, Tesla's cloud profile (Tesla Profiles) can automatically synchronize seat, mirror and steering wheel positions, as well as in-car temperature control, navigation and media playback preferences, and car owners can enjoy seamless conversion between different vehicles using the same account.
Tesla has also released a detailed new version of the energy consumption view, providing personalized suggestions for more efficient energy utilization.
On September 30th local time in the United States, Tesla held its second AI Day event, announcing the latest progress of fully autonomous driving (FSD) technology, Dojo supercomputers and Tesla Optimus robots. A large amount of hardcore content even caused the surge in application applications for Artificial Intelligence related positions.
A series of measures show that Tesla is comprehensively optimizing software and hardware products and production processes, which can be said to be "spend on the edge of money." Tesla's brand has gradually become synonymous with technology in the eyes of consumers.
carries more imagination
Whether traditional giant car companies transform or new car-making forces rise, OEMs have turned their attention to Tesla because it is too daring to think and do it. Tesla's business scope, while embodying Musk's personal feelings, has long exceeded the definition of an OEM.
First talk about the main business of car manufacturing.In the commercial vehicle field, Tesla has entered electric trucks and pickup trucks. Once the Tesla Cybertruck (Cybertruck) was released, its bold and exaggerated shape subverted people's perception of traditional pickup trucks. It is reported that its inspiration comes from the 1982 science fiction movie " Blade Runner ". This Cybertruck, which looks like a large metal block, is expected to have entered the equipment debugging process, with a starting price of US$39,900.
Another new product of Tesla, the electric truck Semi, has also officially started production. Musk said on his personal Twitter in early October that it is expected to deliver to PepsiCo on December 1.
It is understood that the first batch of 15 Semi trucks will be used in the Fidolly factory in Modesto, California and the Pepsi beverage factory in Sacramento . And Walmart , UPS, DHL, etc. also ordered Tesla Semi trucks early. However, in order to alleviate the high battery costs, Tesla is also speeding up the construction of a lithium smelter in Texas, USA.
In addition to making cars, Tesla's products also include smart toilets, electric towel hangers, washing machine companions, solar air energy water heater , smart refrigerator , water heater , wall-mounted toilets, CNC showers, etc.
Some netizens bluntly said that since they changed to Tesla's smart toilet, they feel that their quality of life has improved a lot!
In fact, Tesla's founder Elon Musk actually has another 11 businesses, including Star Network, blockchain, humanoid robots, solar energy, space travel, brain-computer interface , authentic mining machines, flame guns, key straps and limited edition cyber truck-shaped whistle, etc. Recently, they have also sold perfumes, which can be said to be a business following imagination.
The inspiration for the authentic excavation machine was that Musk hoped to solve the problem of ground traffic congestion in the United States by digging tunnels, and Musk specially established BoringCompany to dig tunnels.
BoringCompany not only digs tunnels, but also produces and sells flame guns. It is reported that this flame gun is priced at US$500 and is limited to 20,000 units worldwide, and it sold more than 60 million yuan in 4 days.
Musk believes that some fields are not only about making money, but also about solving some important issues that affect humanity, so that we can have a bright future. He firmly believes that the earth should become a multi-planet species and hopes to become a person who has an important impact on the future destiny of mankind.
Conclusion
Tesla is a pragmatic company that uses the interweaving of ideals and reality to touch the consumption nerves of global automotive and technology users.
But Tesla should not be the mortal enemy of global auto companies, nor will it be the end of the automobile market. The global automobile market is large enough to accommodate unique products, and Tesla is only a unique part of it.
00 million European Auto believes that compared to catching up with Tesla's technology and operating model, Chinese auto companies should learn more about Tesla's strategic layout including cost control and find a differentiated market that suits them.
is true Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates’ ultimate definition of human civilization - know yourself, Chinese car companies do not have to become Tesla, because Chinese car companies need to find a definition in development, compete with "catfish" and enrich the ecology together.
