Since the end of last year, when the Cybertruck, which had been in labor for four years, was successfully mass-produced and delivered, Tesla has finally been able to take some time off to do other things. Their latest news is one after another, and their actions are obviously increasing.Cybertruck has been shipped to China last week and will soon go on a tour.In the United States, the FSDV12 version, known as Tesla’s most important autopilot upgrade, has also been pushed to some users.
Even the affordable model Model 2 (also called Model Q), which has been rumored for so long, has new news.
Early this morning, Tesla released its financial report for the fourth quarter of last year. During the financial report conference call, Lao Ma dug into his heart and answered all the questions that everyone was most concerned about.
Let’s look at them one by one.
First of all, Tesla successfully completed its sales target of 1.8 million vehicles.
Last year, Tesla delivered a total of 1.81 million vehicles, an increase of 38% from the 1.31 million vehicles delivered the previous year.
Especially the popular model Model Y is selling like hotcakes. This car will sell more than 1.2 million units in 2023, which means it can sell 100,000 units a month.
Previously, Toyota's top-selling position in the world has long been occupied by Toyota gasoline vehicles. For example, the best-selling car in 2022 is Corolla, with a total of 1.12 million units sold.
Now, Tesla has broken this record with an electric car, the key price of which is twice that of a Corolla.
And the success of Model Y is not only in China. Its sales abroad are 1.6 times that of domestic ones. From this point of view, electrification has also begun to accelerate abroad.
However, even if it sells so well, Tesla is making money slower and slower.
Last quarter, Tesla's profits plummeted 40%, and its gross profit margin dropped to 17.6%, the lowest in the past two years.
You must know that Tesla is basically the car company with the highest profit margin in the world. When its gross profit margin was high before, it could reach 30%. Compared with that time, it has dropped a lot now.
Last year was Tesla's first full-year profit decline in the past seven years.
More cars have been sold, but gross profits have become lower. Needless to say, this is inseparable from Tesla's big price cuts.
In 2023, the car price war will take off, and Tesla will be the first to take the lead. And not only in China, it is undergoing crazy price reductions and promotions in the United States, France, Denmark and other places.
It can be said that there is no cheapest, only cheaper.
No,As soon as 2024 begins, Tesla has dropped another 10,000-20,000 yuan in China, including the refreshed version of the Model 3 that was just revised last year.
However, many people feel that their peers have already fallen into this trap, and Tesla is not strong enough in this wave, and there is still room for price cuts.
Anyway, our colleague in the editorial department who is planning to buy a Tesla is ready to wait and see, because he thinks Tesla will most likely drop again this year.
Leaving aside the price reduction of old cars, the Cybertruck they just released is not going well either.
Musk worked desperately and even slept in the factory, just to solve the Model 3 production hell.
Who would have thought that now Cybertruck has put Tesla into production hell again, and Lao Ma directly said that he was about to sleep in the factory again.
Previously, Tesla’s Cybertruck production capacity estimate was 125,000 vehicles per year. But now they feel that this thing is too complicated to build and cannot meet the original targets.
Some analysts have even predicted that Cybertruck will only be able to produce about 10,000 units in the first half of 2024.
It's so slow because there are indeed a lot of new things in this car.
For example, its 4680 battery, large cylinder, and dry electrode are all things that no one has done before, and the yield rate has not been improved in the past few years.
There was really no choice but to make some compromises in the manufacturing process on the initial version.
According to later reports,In order to increase the production of 4680, Tesla plans to buy some cathode rolls from Chinese battery factories and ship them to the United States as battery raw materials.
However, this approach is more of a helpless move, because the positive electrode roll, as a raw material in battery production, has very high transportation requirements and cannot be stored alone for a long time, so it has to be transported by air.
Normally, most major battery manufacturers sell battery cells. The positive electrode is originally a part of the battery cell and will not be sold separately. Just like when you go to a restaurant and ask the chef to buy a piece of meat, they definitely can't do it.
So now Tesla is trying to find second-tier battery factories to see if the business can do this, but it is hard to say how to buy them and how much to buy.
It now appears that it will take several years for Tesla to deliver more than 2 million Cybertruck orders.
Friends in China who are paying attention to this car should not worry, because due to pedestrian protection regulations, this car will not be able to enter the Chinese market for a while.
In addition to the above somewhat difficult things, Tesla still has some good news worth talking about.
What is more eye-catching is the energy storage business. In 2023, Tesla's total energy storage installed capacity reached 14.7GWh, more than double that in 2022, and its profits almost quadrupled. And Musk estimates that the production capacity in this area will increase from 20GWh to 40GWh in 2024.
Lao Ma has said more than once that the revenue growth rate of the energy storage business will exceed that of the automotive business. Tesla's energy storage business has not yet entered China, but our domestic car companies have not fallen behind in the direction of energy storage. As far as I know, BYD is actively deploying this area.
In addition, Tesla’s new cars have also made progress.
On the next-generation electric vehicle that everyone is very concerned about - the cheaper "Model 2", Lao Ma finally released the news.
Various news about this car have been exposed before, the price is about 25,000 US dollars, the code name is "Redwood" and so on.
This time, Musk did not say anything specific, but he expressed his position:In 2024, we will focus on the launch of the next generation of low-priced models, with the goal of mass production in 2025.
The picture is a hypothetical picture from foreign media
He also has high expectations for this car, and even said, "I believe Tesla's next wave of growth will be started by the next generation car platform."
There is one thing to say, from the perspective of market competition, Tesla’s car should have been launched long ago.
Model 3/Y has already become the benchmark for compact cars. If Tesla immediately takes advantage of the trend after 3/Y, this serial killer will not be able to catch everyone firmly.
But it happened to fix the Cybertruck, which was difficult for thieves to deal with, and then Musk acquired Twitter to build his X platform.
As a result, Cybertruck had a difficult delivery, and X also held the old horse tightly. Now I finally think of it, I want to buy a car that everyone can afford.
Judging from Tesla's overall financial report this time, although the data is not that beautiful, Tesla's status is still there.
Among other things, Tesla's R&D expenses last year reached a record high, about 28.4 billion yuan, which is equivalent to the combined R&D expenses of many new car-making forces.
But as everyone can see, the electric car market today is already so much bigger than when Model 3/Y was first launched. Domestic car companies are crazy about launching new products in almost every market segment.
When Model 2 comes out again, the competition in the market will only increase. Besides, our car companies are also going abroad. Last year, China became the world's largest exporter, and the overseas sales of electric cars have grown rapidly.
Even Musk praised Chinese car companies at the earnings conference, saying that if there were no tariffs and trade barriers, we would destroy most other car companies.
Judging from what others said, Brother Neck agrees very much. I am afraid that Tesla’s own cars will be damaged to some extent.
It’s really hard to say whether Model 2 can achieve the goals they set by then.