Despite price reductions, Tesla did not achieve the sales targets it had set itself in the past year. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the company handed over significantly more cars to customers than in Q4/2022, and Tesla also achieved high growth for the year as a whole. However, the Americans missed the expectations of analysts and their own forecasts. Losses of more than four percent were evident for the shares on Tuesday morning.
Tesla hits record in fourth quarter
Tesla delivered 405,278 vehicles to customers worldwide in the fourth quarter, almost a third more than a year earlier, the company said. Although this is a quarterly record, experts had expected around 421,000 deliveries. For the year as a whole, Tesla sold around 1.31 million cars, an increase of 40 percent. Musk had declared an annual increase of 50 percent as a goal and announced an “epic” fourth quarter. Production increased by 47 percent to 1.37 million cars. The company, headquartered in Austin (Texas), has not yet given any information on the financial figures. Tesla plans to present these figures on January 25th.
Tesla stock tumbles for the year
Tesla stock has lost two-thirds of its value over the past year. In an environment of rising interest rates and high inflation, investors were not only worried about the comparatively high valuation of Tesla shares. Musk also had to put shares on the market for almost $40 billion to finance the purchase of the short message service Twitter. He bought Twitter for $44 billion last year and assumed leadership of the company after the deal was completed. Tesla investors also resented Musk’s Twitter purchase hype because he seemed to be giving his new acquisition a lot of time and attention.
Tesla put two production facilities into operation last year.
Tesla has done a lot in the past year. Two new plants started up, one in Grünheide near Berlin, the other in Austin in the USA. The harsh anti-corona measures taken by the Beijing government caused problems on the Chinese market. Ultimately, Tesla took a step that was unusual for the company and gave customers in China and the USA discounts for buying cars. The company is still looking for skilled workers for the plant in Brandenburg.
Revenue vs. Margin
“We believe Tesla faces a significant demand problem,” wrote Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, who continues to expect Tesla shares to underperform. Despite the price reductions, Tesla probably received significantly fewer orders than sales in the final quarter. Tesla should either have to cap the growth targets and thus also underutilize the factories. Or the company would have to continue to rely on discounts and possibly expand them worldwide, which would weigh on margins. Tesla now wants to hold a capital market day on March 1st. Then it should become clearer how the group itself intends to approach the near future.
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(mfz)
