(New York) Tesla has managed to deliver record results in the first quarter of 2022 despite problems that have slowed car production at its factories and rising prices for raw materials, but warns that logistical difficulties will persist.
Posted at 4:36 p.m.
Updated at 4:54 p.m.
The sites of the group led by Elon Musk have been operating “below capacity” for several quarters mainly due to disruptions in its supply chain, Tesla notes in a press release.
And this “should continue until the end of 2022”, immediately adds the company.
In addition to the shortage of semiconductors that has affected the entire automotive sector for more than a year, the group has had to deal with spikes in COVID-19 since the beginning of the year.
In its factory in Shanghai, for example, a city that has been under strict confinement for several weeks, the American electric car giant was only able to restart production on Tuesday, after more than 20 days of work stoppage.
But production “will rebound there in force”, assured Elon Musk during a conference call: despite the days lost, it should be in the second quarter “at about the same level as in the first”, he predicts.
In the meantime, the group managed to deliver 310,048 vehicles between January and March, a record.
Tesla also had to deal with the rise in the price of certain raw materials.
The company says it is making efforts to reduce its manufacturing costs, but has still raised its selling prices accordingly.
The waiting list for cars is very long, up to next year for some vehicles, Musk said. The prices anticipate “the cost increases that we expect for the next six to twelve months”.
Robot taxi without steering wheel or pedal
Between the increase in its deliveries, of 68% compared to the same period in 2021, and the increase in the prices of its cars, the turnover of Tesla climbed by 81% year on year, to 18.76 billion of dollars.
Its net profit was multiplied by seven over the period, to reach 3.3 billion dollars. That is much more than the 2.2 billion expected by analysts.
The group was helped by the rebound in sales to other companies of the carbon credits granted to it, because its cars do not emit pollutants (679 million dollars).
Its action rose 5% in electronic trading on Wall Street.
Tesla maintained its long-term goal of growing deliveries by an average of 50% per year.
For Elon Musk, the group even has a “reasonable chance” of achieving 60% growth this year and could produce more than 1.5 million vehicles.
The manufacturer is counting on the start of production in its factories in Berlin in March and in Texas in April.
The increase in production rates at these two sites will depend on the implementation of new production technologies and challenges related to the supply chain, notes the group, stressing that any ramp-up in a new plant “takes time”.
Tesla stresses that it has also emphasized the internal production of electric battery cells, the diversification of its suppliers and its direct supply of raw materials.
The group is also banking on the launch of production of its Cybertruck van, postponed several times, in 2023, and on the launch of a new vehicle, a robot-taxi without steering wheel or pedal, for 2024, said Elon Musk.
The group “still has the capacity to increase its production and can count on a long-term demand for electric vehicles in order to compensate for any short-term hitch that could limit its volumes in the second quarter”, estimates Karl Brauer, of the specialized site iSeeCars. .
But “issues around cost and difficulty in accessing various electric battery components are not going away and will likely increase as production and demand” for zero-emissions cars increases, he adds.
Elon Musk did not mention his recent offer to buy the social network Twitter during the conference call.