Amid dwindling demand, steep price cuts, and ongoing drama surrounding Elon Musk’s management of Twitter, Tesla released its fourth-quarter earnings report in which the company said it made $3.7 billion in revenue. net over $24.3 billion in revenue. That represents an increase of 59 percent year-over-year compared to $2.8 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021.
It was also Tesla’s third year to end in profit, with $14.1 billion in net revenue for 2022, compared with $5.5 billion in profit in 2021 and just $721 million in 2020. Tesla turned that profit into more than $81.5 billion in revenue.
It was also the third year for Tesla to end in the black.
The gains come on the heels of a production and delivery report in which Tesla said it delivered 405,278 vehicles to customers in the past three months and 1.3 million vehicles for all of 2022, narrowly missing its goal of achieving revenue growth. 50 percent year after year.
It was a quarter of unique struggles for Tesla, including waning demand, an aging lineup and increased competition from legacy automakers. Musk’s purchase of Twitter led to a subsequent sharp drop in Tesla’s stock price, which plunged as much as 65 percent over the course of the year. The loss slashed billions from Musk’s own net worth, leading him to claim the unfortunate designation as the first person in history to lose $200 billion. according to Bloomberg.
In the run up to the earnings report, analysts touted the upgrade as one of the biggest yet for Musk and his company.
“Tesla faces a darker macro in 2023 with fierce competition coming from all angles”
“After experiencing unprecedented hypergrowth in recent years in the EV market, essentially created by Musk, Tesla now faces a darker macro in 2023 with fierce competition coming from all angles,” the analyst wrote. Wedbush, Dan Ives, in a note before publication. Earnings report Wednesday. Adding to that backdrop is Musk, who has essentially gone from a red-caped superhero to a villain in the eyes of many investors after the ongoing Twitter fiasco has cast a dark shadow over Tesla stock. .
Musk’s view as “asleep at the wheel” and distracted by his new ownership of Twitter has also damaged the brand’s image among consumers, who suddenly have a new generation of electric vehicles to choose from without the Tesla name.
As the world leader in electric vehicle sales, Tesla has long been seen as a benchmark for the electrification of the automotive industry. Analysts believe the company’s recent price cuts are just the latest sign that the EV market may be entering the “shake-up” phase where there are now plenty of EVs on the market, longer wait times. shorts and prices down. Tesla cut its prices, first in China and then in the US, in what experts say was an attempt to boost demand before the end of the year.
But if Musk remains Twitter’s chief executive, it’s not clear that price cuts can help repair Tesla’s image. “Tesla is Musk,” Ives writes. “And Musk is Tesla.”