– by Hyunjoo Jin and Jan Schwartz
San Francisco/Hamburg (Reuters) – Tesla has shaken off the turmoil surrounding supply bottlenecks and rising raw material costs and is setting new standards in the industry with its profitability.
The US electric car maker, led by multi-billionaire Elon Musk, boosted its operating margin to 19.2 percent at the start of the year – four and a half percentage points more than in the previous quarter, reaching a level that dwarfs almost all other manufacturers. Only niche manufacturers like some sports car manufacturers can keep up. “Tesla is the world’s most profitable carmaker after Ferrari,” said auto professor Ferdinand Dudenhöffer. Tesla has achieved this thanks to high productivity, cost reductions and higher prices.
The two new plants in Grünheide near Berlin and Austin in the US state of Texas were not yet running at full speed. With the factories that just opened. Tesla wants to reduce its dependence on China and better serve the high demand. In its largest plant in Shanghai, the conveyor belts had recently stood still for almost three weeks due to the corona lockdown. Despite the production interruption, Musk announced on Wednesday (local time) at a conference call to present the quarterly results for 2022 that deliveries would increase to more than 1.5 million vehicles, 60 percent more than last year. Musk was also confident that the group could increase deliveries by 50 percent annually over several years, as promised.
Recently, Tesla had increased the prices for its vehicles sharply. That was well received by experts: “The price increase is well above cost inflation,” said Roth Capital analyst Craig Irwin. Tesla shares are up 6 percent in after-hours trading.
THE WINNING MACHINE GETS UP
Tesla increased sales in the first quarter by 81 percent to $18.8 billion – a billion more than analysts had expected on average, according to Refinitiv data. Net income soared to $3.3 billion. In the same period last year, 438 million had been booked. Tesla delivered more vehicles than ever before. A total of 310,000 cars rolled to customers in the first three months, two-thirds more than in the same quarter last year. Musk himself also benefits: According to Forbes, the richest man in the world should receive a profit-sharing fee of 23 billion dollars after the good results. Musk does not receive a salary, but receives bonuses linked to various performance criteria.
Musk cited the rapid rise in the cost of lithium as the reason for rising costs and a limiting factor for the growth of e-mobility. He encouraged other companies to get involved in this business, which he believes promises high margins. For the coming months, the busy manager, whose activities range from space travel to underground transport systems and energy supply, has announced “some exciting announcements” regarding the securing of raw materials for batteries. As is often the case during his public appearances, Musk also announced a new product: Tesla wants to mass-produce a robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedal by 2024. Practically all major car manufacturers are currently working on automated driving. According to experts, however, it will be several years before the vehicles are ready for series production and without a driver.
The Tesla boss did not respond to the takeover of the short message service Twitter, the announcement of which Musk had caused a stir. He announced last week that he would acquire Twitter for $43 billion. Critics fear that the controversial project and the associated debate about freedom of expression on the Internet could distract him from the Tesla business. Investors think it’s possible that the takeover could involve selling Tesla shares or borrowing more to fund its bid.