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Tesla Invoiced 16,934 Million Dollars in Q2, Announced More Capacity: 1.9 Million Cars

The second quarter of 2022 will be remembered as the first time in which things did not go so well for Tesla – in a relative way -, although it was obviously due to external causes: the Shanghai Gigafactory had to close for 20 days in a row and then they had to deal with many different logistics problems, which meant that finally some 50,000 cars went out of production. Still, the company announced even more capacity: 1.9 million cars.
Tesla Model Y, Courtesy of Tesla Inc.

As deliveries fell sharply, Wall Street analysts had forecast $16.521 million in revenue and earnings of $1.81 per share, at first. They fell short: in reality, Tesla invoiced 16,934 million dollars, half a dollar more per share, and increasing its "cash" by 800 million dollars, up to 18,300 million.

Two other figures are very interesting. On the one hand, the 14.6% operating margin (as compared to 19.2% in Q1, 2022), an increase of 358 basis points as compared to last year (Q2, 2021 at 11%). This means that the price increases are above the cost increases they had so far; in turn increasing what they earn per car. On the other hand, the month of June was actually the best - in production terms - in the whole history of the California – Austin brand.

There are very good prospects for the third quarter 2022: all factories have in fact slightly increased their Model 3 and Model Y production capacity. Model S and Model X capacity remains as usual, 100,000 units produced at the Fremont plant, basically above market demand.

Giga Shanghai, courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Fremont's capacity is now 550,000 Model 3 and Model Ys, an increase of 50,000 units from the first quarter. In Gigafactory Shanghai, capacity has been expanded quite a bit, going from more than 450,000 units to more than 750,000 per year, and by the way making it the largest electric car factory in the world. Lastly, both Gigafactory Berlin and Giga Texas have gone from “initial production” to more than 250,000 units produced a year (each) of the Model Y.

The rest of the models are still in the "development" phase and there is no defined production capacity for them: the long awaited Cybertruck, the Semi truck, the Roadster super-sports, Robotaxi and others. Taking into account what has already been said, Tesla would end the year with a capacity of more than 1,800,000 Model 3 and Model Y (especially the crossover) and another 100,000 Model S/X.

Tesla Model 3, courtesy of Tesla Inc.

It does not actually mean that Tesla will end the year with 1.9 million units; that would be in an ideal scenario, but the results of 2021 will be exceeded for sure. And surprisingly, this very positive news has not directly caused a bullish rally in the stock market, rather a simply positive and typical reaction of a traditional manufacturer: +5.38% in five days and 742.50 dollars per share. The hype always goes its way, regardless of economic and industrial figures, which are the ones that really matter at the end of the day.

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.

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