This must be the envy of the entire auto industry: Elon Musk is making huge profits right now. In the last quarter alone, the profit margin of 343,830 Tesla vehicles sold increased by 17.2 percent. Musk thus reaches the level of Porsche.
It’s remarkable: 95 percent of Tesla vehicles sold in the last three months were Model 3 or Model Y only. In principle, Tesla creates economic success with only one model line and two body variants. Elon Musk relies on a lean and cost-effective build, unlike the competition, with a wide variety of models and drivers.
Tesla is ahead of the curve everywhere
While European automakers have only just begun and have gradually increased their electric car production over the past ten months, Tesla will have sold more than 1.3 million electric cars by the end of 2022. And therefore it is ahead of the game in all key areas.
Auto expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Duisburg, does not expect the picture to change so quickly and the competition to catch up significantly. “For electric cars, picture book margins like Tesla for European car companies in the next five years are unthinkable. And how it looks in the long run, at least, depends not only on the further development of Tesla, but also on the Chinese like BYD,” says Dudenhöffer, looking to the future.
Tesla’s leadership grows
According to the auto expert, Tesla’s leadership has not waned. “More precisely, it increases when you add economic or commercial leadership to it. And it will continue to rise,” Dudenhöffer was convinced. He sees the reason in the fact that the two major world markets, China and the USA, are increasingly turning to electric cars, especially due to government subsidies. “And so Tesla’s economies of scale should continue to increase over the next few years,” Dudenhöffer says.
For example, Mercedes, which sold 75,400 electric cars in the first nine months of this year, will focus only eight percent of Tesla volume (BMW 14 percent, VW group at least 40 percent) on luxury, making it harder. By eliminating entry-level models to take advantage of the cost benefits of electric cars in the future.
With a look at the business results so far this year, it can be summarized as follows: While Tesla has always been considered a leader only in technology, now a leader in the economy is increasingly stepping in. And this is an accusation of established automakers.