(New York) Tesla, riding on the e-vehicle craze, made a record $5.5 billion in profit in 2021, but warned that problems with its supply chain could linger throughout the period. ‘year.
Updated yesterday at 4:55 p.m.
Elon Musk’s group had already announced that it had jumped its deliveries by 87% last year, despite the shortage of semiconductors and supply problems affecting the entire automotive sector.
Its turnover soared 71% to 53.8 billion, slightly above analysts’ forecasts.
“2021 has been a breakthrough year for Tesla. There should no longer be any doubt about the viability and profitability of electric vehicles,” the group commented in a press release.
Tesla even claims that its operating margin in the fourth quarter was higher than that of all the major traditional automakers, “showing that electric vehicles can make more money than vehicles with internal combustion engines”.
Earnings excluding exceptional items and reported per share, the benchmark on Wall Street, came in at US$6.78, again beating expectations.
In the fourth quarter alone, the group saw its turnover grow by 65% to 17.7 billion and its net profit jump to 2.3 billion.
The automaker, which has announced since the start of 2021 that it wants to increase its deliveries by an average of 50% per year for many years, is maintaining this objective.
But he warns that “the rate of growth will depend on the capacity of [ses] equipment, operational efficiency and supply chain capacity and stability”.
“Our own factories have been operating below capacity for many quarters, primarily due to supply chain, which is expected to continue into 2022,” he adds.
To increase production, the group is counting on its new factories in Austin, Texas, and Berlin. Production was supposed to start there last year, but is still in the testing phase, Tesla said on Wednesday.
The group’s share fell 3% in electronic trading following the closing of the New York Stock Exchange.
After the announcement of a mega-order of 100,000 electric vehicles from the rental company Hertz, Tesla entered the small club of companies worth more than 1000 billion US on Wall Street at the end of October. It has since fallen back a bit, like most tech stocks.