Why Covid, raw materials and war do not block Tesla’s race
Despite the lockdown in Shanghai, Tesla's gigafactory does not close, but production slows down due to hitches in the supply chains. The increase in the price of raw materials, then, could induce the house to revise the price of its vehicles. All the details
In recent weeks, Covid tried again to deflate the tires to the fast and silent Tesla of Elon Musk , placing himself in the middle of the profit road of the former Californian house, now Texan (Tesla at the end of December had fled from the Golden State precisely for the his anti-pandemic restrictions that would have slowed production excessively and in controversy with the taxation, which he said was too high). Shanghai, in fact, as is well known, is back in lockdown. Less well known is that this is now Tesla's main gigafactory which, in order not to close, is said to have decided to isolate its employees directly in the company, making them sleep between one line and another (however, it is not the only company to to do so, nor a novelty in China).
IT IS RUNNING, BUT THE PRODUCTION IS IN SINGHIOZZO
"Our factories – reads the report to the shareholders – have operated below their capacity for several quarters since the supply chain has become the main limiting factor". A situation that, given the iron fist of the Chinese authorities at the occurrence of a few thousand cases and the sadly known Ukrainian events "will probably continue for the rest of 2022". In short, Tesla admits to racing with the handbrake on. And probably the gigafactories in Texas and Berlin (fresh from inauguration , after multiple delays of an administrative nature that had prompted Musk to heavily criticize the German bureaucracy) will not be able to quickly replace each other, a factor that could compromise the productivity plans of the auto giant EV, who want 1.5 million cars off the lines by the end of the year. Musk , however, lets it be known that he still believes it.
WILL THE CRISIS REACH EVEN MUSK'S EV CARS?
If we add to this that war and increases in commodity prices will probably force Tesla to revise the prices upwards once again, the road could get bumpy. But those who maligned that the shots of his patron on the purchase of Twitter were aimed at hiding, first of all, an undertone quarterly has been denied. We do not know what will happen in the future, when and to what extent the economic situation will also affect Musk's EV cars, but what is certain is that, with reference to the situation photographed by the data released today, Tesla continues to run, indifferent, or almost, to what happens around him.
THE FIRST QUARTER OF TESLA IN NUMBERS
Q1 2022 revenue for Tesla was $ 18.76 billion, largely, or 87%, from the sale of cars while the remainder is due to batteries and solar panels. Earnings are $ 3.22 per share, while estimates stopped much lower at $ 2.26. Operating margin more than tripled: 19%. 310,048 cars were registered. It should be emphasized that a significant contribution also came from the sale of environmental credits, equal to 679 million (+ 31%).
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/tesla-lockdown-shanghai/ on Thu, 21 Apr 2022 13:21:30 +0000.