(New York) The American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla announced higher results on Wednesday, in the wake of sales boosted by price reductions practiced for several months.
As analysts expected, these price cuts eroded the profit margin of Elon Musk’s group, which slipped to 18.2%, from 19.3% in the first quarter.
The billionaire had laid out his strategy in April: it is better to sell more even if the margins are temporarily lower.
“It’s better to deliver a lot of cars with a lower margin and reap that margin later as we improve” self-driving software, he explained.
Deliveries climbed to 466,140 vehicles in the quarter, from 254,695 a year earlier.
“We are delighted to have achieved such results given the macroeconomic environment we currently find ourselves in,” the group said in its earnings release. “We plan to ramp up production as quickly as possible. »
“For 2023, we hope to be ahead [of our forecast] with around 1.8 million vehicles over the year,” he confirmed.
Net income jumped 20% in the second quarter to $2.7 billion.
Tesla stock was up 0.24% at US$292.28 in post-Wall Street trading.
“We have ample cash on hand to fund our product program, long-term plant capacity expansion plans and other expenses,” the automaker said.
Group revenue was US$24.92 billion (47%). It benefited from the increase in deliveries and growth in the group’s other branches, but it was affected by a drop in the average selling price and by unfavorable exchange rates.
Tesla built 479,700 vehicles in the second quarter, compared to 258,580 in the same period of 2022 and 440,808 in the first quarter of this year.
For Wedbush analysts, Tesla is now “in a strong position” in the electric vehicle market thanks to “its aggressive pricing policy”. The group is “now preparing to further monetize this achievement,” they commented.
They are now waiting to hear Elon Musk’s forecasts and comments, including on the possibility of additional tariff reductions.
The group was satisfied with the level of its operating margin, which remained “healthy” at around 10% “despite the price reductions of the first and second quarters”.
“This reflects our continued efforts to reduce costs, the success of the production lines in Berlin and Texas and the good performance of our Energy and Services businesses” in particular.
Regarding the Cybertruck electric pickup, the first copy of which left the production line of the Tesla mega-factory in Texas on Saturday, the group said on Wednesday that the start of large-scale production would take place, as planned, by the end of the year.
The machine with a futuristic silhouette, clad in a kind of metal shell with rather unusual angular lines, was unveiled in November 2019.
Two days after the vehicle’s mass presentation, Tesla said it had received nearly 150,000 pre-orders. The group has not given any indication on this subject since or concerning the sale price.
At launch, the company said the Cybertruck – which can go from 0 to 100 km/h in less than three seconds, according to the Tesla site – was to come in three models, $39,900 (over $52,000) and 400 km range for the entry level, up to $69,900 (about $92,000) and 800 km of autonomy announced for the higher model.
It will find itself in competition with Ford’s electric pickup, which announced on Monday a $10,000 drop in the selling price of its F-150 Lightning.