Tesla's German factory has had another accident!
According to German television, on May 11th local time, nearly a thousand protesters gathered outside Tesla's super factory in Glenhead, Brandenburg, Germany to protest against Tesla's proposed expansion plan.
It is worth mentioning that Tesla's German factory has always been a target of protests by environmental groups. On March 5th this year, Tesla's super factory located in the southeast of Berlin, Germany, suspended production activities due to power outages.
In the first quarter of 2024, Tesla delivered approximately 387000 electric vehicles globally, a year-on-year decrease of 8.5%. This is the first time in nearly four years that Tesla has experienced a year-on-year decline in sales in a single quarter. Tesla mentioned the shutdown of its German factory as the reason for the decline in sales.
Since the beginning of this year, Tesla's stock price has fallen by over 32%.
Tesla Emergency
CCTV News quoted a German television station as reporting that on May 11th local time, nearly a thousand protesters gathered outside Tesla's super factory in Glenhead, Brandenburg, Germany to protest against Tesla's proposed expansion plan.
This protest will begin on the 8th of this month. The Tesla factory in Germany had previously submitted a plan to expand the factory to the city government of Glenhead, but local residents believed that the expansion project would pollute water sources, so they held demonstrations and demanded that the city government not approve the expansion plan.
It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time Tesla's German factory has experienced an accident. According to a report by Agence France Presse on March 5th, Tesla and local departments in Germany stated that on March 5th local time, it was suspected that someone had set fire to the high-voltage lines near Tesla's Berlin factory in Germany, causing a power outage at Tesla's only manufacturing plant in Europe and forcing Tesla to stop production at the German factory. A statement from Tesla stated, "In the early hours of the morning, due to suspected arson attacks, there was a power outage in the public grid, resulting in a production halt."
On March 6th local time, Tesla announced that the electric vehicle company's "super factory" in Germany will cease production until March 17th, longer than previously expected. However, Musk posted on March 13th stating that Tesla's super factory in Berlin has resumed operations and thanking the employees for their support.
Tesla's German factory manager Andre Tirig once stated that during the shutdown period, more than 1000 cars could not be taken off the production line every day, "which means a nine digit loss for us.".
The left-wing extremist group "Volcano Organization" claimed on the 6th that they were responsible for the arson on the 5th. This organization claims that Tesla's factory affects the environment and local water supply, and there is "extreme exploitation". The factory currently has approximately 12500 employees.
Performance still under pressure
According to Tesla's Q1 2024 financial report, the company achieved a revenue of $21.3 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 9%. This is the first quarterly revenue decline for Tesla in nearly four years, with a net profit of $1.129 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 55%.
In terms of car sales, Tesla delivered 386800 new cars in the first quarter of 2024, a year-on-year decrease of 8.5%. Among them, there were a total of 370000 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, and 17000 other products. From the perspective of the Chinese market, Tesla's sales in China decreased to only 133000 units in the first quarter of 2024, a significant year-on-year decline.
Tesla attributes the reason for the decline in sales to "force majeure": firstly, the outbreak of the Red Sea crisis interrupted Tesla's parts supply and temporarily suspended production at its factory in Berlin; Secondly, in March, German environmental activists set fire to the infrastructure near the Berlin factory, causing Tesla related factories to lose sufficient operational capacity and once again leading to production shutdowns; Finally, after the Model 3 upgrade, the Fremont factory in California is still in the early stage of capacity ramp up, which has affected Tesla's production and sales.
The financial report also shows that Tesla's artificial intelligence training calculations related to autonomous driving have improved by 130%. At present, Tesla already has millions of vehicle data and massive AI training clusters to achieve large-scale autonomous driving, and will continue to expand its scale. This means that Tesla is also "AII in autonomous driving", and its artificial intelligence technology development is entering a stage of full speed advancement.
In its Q1 2024 financial report, Tesla stated that it will accelerate the launch of more affordable models. Musk stated during the earnings conference call that it is expected that low-cost models will be launched in the market in early 2025, and it is not ruled out that they may even be advanced to the later part of 2024. "That will be quite fast. The next generation product line will be built on top of the existing production line and does not require the construction of new factories.".
According to a research report by Kaiyuan Securities, in the Chinese market, domestic new energy vehicle brands are rapidly rising, and the level of electric intelligence technology is continuously improving. Tesla's technological leadership advantage is clearly narrowing. More importantly, due to cost reduction and economies of scale in the supply chain, cost-effectiveness has gradually become the focus of competition for many new energy brands. New energy vehicle companies represented by BYD have achieved rapid sales growth, further squeezing the development space of foreign brands such as Tesla in the Chinese market. FSD software fees, Robotaxi, and cost reduction in manufacturing may become directions for Tesla to break through.
In addition, on April 15th, Musk released an all staff email setting Tesla's global layoff rate at 10%. Some analysts believe that the annual wave of layoffs is Tesla's "routine operation". Due to the rapid growth of employees, Tesla will lay off some underperforming employees, improving the overall efficiency of the company.