Earnings season: Tesla back in the driving seat with earnings beat

Another quarter brings enormous success to Tesla, despite supply chain snags limiting production.

Tesla earnings

Tesla Q4 2021 headline stats

Tesla put the pedal to the metal once more in 2021’s fourth quarter. That marks another successive high performing quarter for Elon Musk’s carmaker after a stellar Q3.

Take a look at Tesla’s Q4 2021 headline stats below:

• Earnings – $2.52 per share vs. $2.36 forecast
• Revenues – $17.72 billion vs. $16.57 forecast

Revenues are up some 65% year-on-year. Tesla’s automotive wing, i.e., its primary business, saw revenues jump a massive 71% on an annualised basis. The company is basically the poster child for EVs and is still miles ahead of the competitive in terms of brand recognition and sales.

Total automotive revenues came to $15.97bn.

Conversely, the energy storage and generation division saw an 8% fall in revenues, totalling $688 million.

Overall net income was up a shocking 760%, according to Tesla, for a total of $2.3bn.

This was after the auto manufacturer had to navigate a tricky quarter, in terms of supply chain issues. Tesla has been traditionally very good at securing chipset supplies, but as a result of shortages, the company will not be launching any models in 2025.

According to Musk, Tesla is not working on a $25,000 car either, with no plans to enter the affordable EV segment just yet. It’s much anticipated Cybertruck will not be available this year either – although you can use your Dogecoin to buy Cybertruck merchandise from the Tesla webstore to tide you over.

Tesla: a cash machine?

With yet another high performing quarter under its belt, investors and banks are calling Tesla a cash generator to watch.

In a note to investors, Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas dubbed the automaker a “cash machine”.

“The company is annualizing to >1% [free cash flow] yield” Jonas’ not said. “Sure, it’s lower than the legacy auto companies that seem to be in fashion lately. But how many 50% multi-year top line growers on your screen actually generate cash?”

There’s no doubting Tesla’s enormous success in recent years. Where it goes next all comes down to Musk’s roadmap.

Carmaker pushes ahead with production expansion plans

With mega factories in Austin Texas, and Berlin, Germany already starting to pump out cars, Tesla is planning to push on with upping productivity.

The goal is to increase unit production 50% by 2024. A particular focus will be given to Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 vehicles and delivery of around 250,000 Cybertrucks. As well as beefing up output at the Texas and German facilities, the carmaker plans to build 600,000 vehicles a year at its original Fremont, California plant.

Then there is Tesla’s self-driving technology. The ever bullish Elon Musk is confident that Tesla can deliver self-driven cars with maximum safety this year. The company said it has expanded its experimental driver assistance systems testing program, dubbed FSD Beta, to around 60,000 users in the US.

“Full Self-Driving (FSD) software remains one of our primary areas of focus,” the company wrote. “Over time, our software-related profit should accelerate our overall profitability.”

However, the technology has a lot of hurdles to clear. The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are investigating Tesla’s tech and testing regime. A number of fatal incidents have occurred from self-driven Tesla vehicles in recent years. To mass launch the tech now could prove dangerous.

Be sure to check out our earnings calendar to see who is reporting and when this earnings season.