In the fourth quarter, the company handed over to its boss and tech billionaire Elon Musk Although significantly more cars were sold to customers than a year ago, and the US electric car pioneer also achieved high growth for the year as a whole, the Americans missed the expectations of analysts and their own forecasts. Losses of more than four percent were evident for the shares on Tuesday morning.
Tesla delivered 405,278 vehicles to customers worldwide in the final quarter, almost a third more than a year earlier, the company announced on the eve. Although this is a quarterly record, experts had expected around 421,000 deliveries.
For the year as a whole, the carmaker sold around 1.31 million cars, an increase of 40 percent. However, Musk had announced an annual increase of 50 percent as a goal and an “epic” fourth quarter. Production increased by 47 percent to 1.37 million cars. The company, headquartered in Austin (Texas), has not yet given any information on the financial figures, Tesla wants to present the figures on January 25th.
Tesla stock has lost two-thirds of its value over the past year. In an environment of rising interest rates and high inflation, investors were not only worried about the comparatively high valuation of Tesla shares. Musk also had to put shares on the market for almost $40 billion to finance the controversial purchase of short message service Twitter. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last year after much hesitation and took over the management of the company after the deal was complete. Tesla investors also resented Musk’s media hype because he seemed to devote a lot of time and attention to Twitter.
Tesla 2022 also had good things to do and struggled with adversity. Two new plants started up – one in Grünheide near Berlin, the other in Austin in the USA. In the important Chinese market, the Beijing government’s harsh anti-corona measures caused problems. Ultimately, Tesla took a step that was unusual for the company and gave customers in China and the USA discounts for buying cars.
“We believe Tesla faces a significant demand problem,” wrote Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, who continues to expect Tesla shares to underperform. Despite the price reductions, Tesla probably received significantly fewer orders than sales in the final quarter. Tesla should either have to cap the growth targets and thus also underutilize the factories. Or the company would have to continue to rely on discounts and possibly expand them worldwide, which would weigh on margins.
Tesla now wants to hold a capital market day on March 1st – then it should become a little clearer how the group itself wants to approach the near future.
Tesla boss in China to become Musk’s crown prince
According to documents, the former China boss of the US electric car manufacturer Tesla will in future be number two behind company boss Elon Musk.
According to an organizational chart available to Reuters, Tom Zhu is, in addition to his previous role, the top manager of the Tesla plants in the USA and sales in North America and Europe. According to the new division, which was also confirmed by two insiders, under Musk he controls the operational business of the rapidly growing electric car manufacturer worldwide. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
The publicly acclaimed company has been under pressure since Musk took over the short message service Twitter and personally threw himself into its restructuring. Tesla investors have expressed concerns that Musk could neglect the automaker’s leadership – at a time when the US electric car pioneer is also feeling the waning desire to buy as a result of the global economic downturn. Tesla board member James Murdoch said in November that the company had recently identified Musk’s potential successor, without naming him.
Zhu recently visited Tesla’s two factories in California and Texas, leading to speculation among colleagues in Shanghai that Zhu may be eligible for a higher-level and wider role at Tesla. Under Zhu, assembly in Shanghai had recovered from the corona lockdowns and the target of increasing production by 50 percent in 2022 was almost reached. He was among the first to stay overnight at the factory to keep production running, just like Musk did when there were production problems. The native Chinese with a New Zealand passport has worked at Tesla since 2014. He now reports to the heads of the Gigafactory in Texas, Jason Shawhan, and the main plant in Fremont, Hrushikesh Sagar. Reporting to him on the sales side are North America Manager Troy Jones and Joe Ward, Europe/Middle East/Africa Region Head. This emerges from internal company information that was available to Reuters. The German Tesla factory in Grünheide near Berlin is not listed, but according to an insider it has so far been located at Europe boss Ward.
Tesla shares fell 2.68 percent to $119.88 in premarket NASDAQ trading.
AUSTIN (dpa-AFX) / Shanghai (Reuters)
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