After the market closed on Wednesday Eastern Time, the "leader" in the electric vehicle industry released its fourth-quarter performance report. Both revenue and profit fell short of market expectations. The company also expects sales growth to "decline significantly" in 2024 as it develops its next generation of vehicles. Affected by this financial report, Tesla closed down 0.63% on Wednesday and fell more than 4% later in the session. After an astonishing rise in 2023, the company's stock price has fallen by more than 16% this year.


According to this financial report, Tesla’s fourth-quarter revenue was US$25.17 billion, an increase of 3% from US$24.3 billion in the same period last year, but lower than analysts’ expectations of US$25.87 billion; adjustedEarnings per share (EPS) was $0.71, analysts expected $0.73; fourth fiscal quarterFree cash flow was $2.06 billion, analysts expected $1.45 billion.


The company's gross profit margin in the fourth quarter was 17.6%, lower than the expected 18.1%; a year-on-year decrease of 6.12 percentage points and a month-on-month decrease of 0.3 percentage points. The company's operating profit margin was 8.2%, down 7.8 percentage points from 16.0% in the same period last year, but up 0.6 percentage points month-on-month.

Among them, the automotive business revenue was US$21.563 billion, an increase of only 1% from US$21.307 billion in the same period last year. The auto industry's revenue growth has been sluggish, in part due to a decline in average selling prices after global car price cuts in the second half of last year. Tesla said full-year vehicle revenue reached $82.42 billion, an increase of 15% from 2022.

Notably, the energy division, which is much smaller than Tesla's core business, is a bright spot, with revenue rising 54% in 2023 to $6.04 billion. This segment sells solar power generation and energy storage systems. In addition, Tesla's "services and other" business revenue increased 37% year-on-year to $8.32 billion.

On the other hand, Tesla's Q4 car production was 494,989 vehicles, an increase of 13% from 439,701 vehicles in the same period last year; delivery volume was 484,507 vehicles, an increase of 20% from 405,278 vehicles in the same period last year.


Among them, Model 3/Y production was 476,777 units, a year-on-year increase of 14%; delivery volume was 461,538 units, a year-on-year increase of 19%. The output of other models was 18,212 units, a year-on-year decrease of 12%; the delivery volume was 22,969 units, a year-on-year increase of 34%.future outlook

Tesla said in an investor note that vehicle sales growth in 2024 "will likely be significantly lower" than last year's growth rate as the company works to launch "next-generation vehicles" at its Gigafactory in Texas. The company said that in 2024, the deployment and revenue growth of the energy storage business should exceed that of the automotive business.

Electric car maker Tesla has told its suppliers that it hopes to start production of a new mass-market electric car code-named "Redwood" in mid-2025, the media reported on Wednesday (January 24), citing four people familiar with the matter. The model is said to be described as a "compact crossover."

According to people familiar with the matter, Tesla issued a "request for quotation" or invitation to bid for the Redwood model to suppliers last year and expected production to reach 10,000 vehicles per week, with production expected to begin in June 2025.

In addition, Tesla reminded investors that it is "currently between two major growth waves": the first wave began with the global expansion of the Model 3/Y platform, and the next growth wave will be initiated by the global expansion of the next-generation vehicle platform.

However, in this quarter's financial report, Tesla uncharacteristically did not provide specific delivery targets. The company has long targeted an average annual growth rate of 50% over several years. Analysts expect Tesla to sell 2.2 million vehicles this year, an increase of about 20% from 2023.

On the other hand, it is known that Tesla started selling Cybertruck to customers this quarter. "Given the manufacturing complexity of the Cybertruck, we expect the Cybertruck will have a longer ramp than other models," the company said in an investor filing. Tesla said it now has the capacity to produce more than 125,000 Cybertrucks per year.

Finally, as Tesla continues to increase innovation to reduce manufacturing and operating costs, Tesla expects the company's hardware-related profits to accelerate along with artificial intelligence (AI), software, and fleet-related profits.