The second quarter of 2021 was Tesla's best quarter ever. The company, for the very first time, produced and sold (globally) more than 200,000 electric cars and achieved a record high profitability.
The final sales numbers are slightly higher than in the preliminary report (the production numbers have not changed).
"In the second quarter of 2021, we broke new and notable records. We produced and delivered over 200,000 vehicles, achieved an operating margin of 11.0% and exceeded $1B of GAAP net income for the first time in our history."
Let's take a look at the details and then check out the outlook.
Quarterly results
- Total production: 206,421 (up 151% year-over-year)
- Model 3/Y production: 204,081 (up 169% year-over-year)
- Model S/X production: 2,340 (down 63% year-over-year)
- Total deliveries: 201,304 (up 121% year-over-year)
- Model 3/Y deliveries: 199,409 (up 148% year-over-year)
- Model S/X deliveries: 1,895 (down 82% year-over-year)
The important thing is that despite the record rate of production, the global vehicle inventory (days of supply) remains at a very low level of just 9 days! That's a clear sign that there is tremendous demand for Tesla cars.
"Supply chain challenges, in particular global semiconductor shortages and port congestion, continued to be present in Q2. The Tesla team, including supply chain, software development and our factories, worked extremely hard to keep production running as close to full capacity as possible. With global vehicle demand at record levels, component supply will have a strong influence on the rate of our delivery growth for the rest of this year."
"Public sentiment and support for electric vehicles seems to be at a never-before-seen inflection point. We continue to work hard to drive down costs and increase our rate of production to make electric vehicles accessible to as many people as possible."
Tesla Model S/X/3/Y Deliveries (quarterly) – through Q2 2021
Another look:
The 12-month rolling deliveries are now above 700,000:
Deliveries by model
99% of Tesla's sales are Model 3 and Model Y. The company doesn't break sales down between the individual models.
The Model S/X deliveries decreased in Q2 compared to Q1, but we must remember that in Q1 only the last units of the outgoing version were sold.
Cumulatively, Tesla sold almost 1.8 million electric cars, including over 500,000 Model S/X and over 1.27 million Model 3/Model Y. 2 million willo be reached this quarter.
Forecast
Tesla expects that the long-term average annual growth of vehicle deliveries will be at around 50%:
"We plan to grow our manufacturing capacity as quickly as possible. Over a multi-year horizon, we expect to achieve 50% average annual growth in vehicle deliveries. In some years we may grow faster, which we expect to be the case in 2021. The rate of growth will depend on our equipment capacity, operational efficiency, and the capacity and stability of the supply chain."
In 2020, the company sold about 500,000 electric cars, which means that the base for 2021 is significantly more than 750,000.
So far this year, the company already sold over 386,000 and is on track to sell more than 400,000 in the second half of the year (assuming at least 200,000 per quarter). That would bring the total to over 800,000.
Taking into consideration high demand and ongoing expansion of manufacturing capacity, it might be more.
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