Another year to be framed for Elon Musk and Tesla: in fact, the company has not only closed 2021 in profit – as it already happened in 2020 – but has achieved record commercial (and financial) results. The most significant figure is certainly that of deliveries: 936,172 units, an increase of 87.4%. That is equivalent to revenues in the order of 50 billion dollars, with a turnover of + 73% and operating profit increased by 227% up to 6.52 billion (net profit at + 211%, to 7.64 billion).
The company generated more than $ 5 billion in cash, 80% more than in 2020. All this against a contribution from “environmental credits” – those virtually sold to other manufacturers to allow them to fall within the limits of medium range pollutant emissions imposed by law – dropped by 7% to 1.465 billion, reflecting the green efforts of other car manufacturers. “2021 was a turning point for Tesla”, the company said, underlining how “there should no longer be any doubts about the sustainability and profitability of electric vehicles”.
The objectives for the coming years are ambitious: the target is an average annual growth in deliveries of 50%, thanks also to the start of production in the Austin and Berlin plants and to the increase in productivity in Fremont and Shanghai. All this, however, will depend on the developments of the semiconductor crisis, which is cutting the legs of all car manufacturers a little and which shows no signs of improving for 2022.
New models? Not foreseen for 2022: “If we introduce new models, our output would decrease because we should focus on those,” said Elon Musk: “This year, therefore, there will be no new ones, it would make no sense. We will invest in the development of the Semi, the Roadster and the Cybertruck with the aim of bringing them into production next year ”. Speaking of Cybertruck, the edgy American pickup has been postponed to 2023: “You can do something desirable, but if people can’t afford it it’s useless: we want the Cybertruck to be competitively priced, but it will take some time. time to reach the levels we want to reach “.
A philosophy that could be at the basis of the delays also accumulated by the Semi truck and the sporty Roadster. And even the compact electric chat of 25,000, announced at Battery Day in 2020, is stuck: “We are not currently working on it. At some point we will start, but now we are not doing it ”. If nothing else, 2022 will be the year of total self-driving: “I believe we can achieve full self-driving this year”, said Elon Musk, technology destined to “become the main form of income for Tesla”.
Tesla and the pilot project in the Netherlands, Superchargers also open to vehicles of other brands
Mattia Eccheli
