Recently, the international electric car giant Tesla held a conference to announce 2023 financial results, data show that Tesla in revenue growth of 18.79%. And net profit growth of 19%, significantly lower than the previous two years of more than 50% data. The decline in Tesla's net profit is caused by a variety of reasons, among which the most recognized reason is that under the impact of the crazy development of electric vehicles in China, Tesla has begun to lag behind and lose its original competitiveness.
Once the news was sent out, it caused a chain reaction, and Tesla's stock price fell 5.93%. Based on the current share price, Tesla's current market value of $660.675 billion is less than 30% of its 2020 high of $2.2 trillion. At the conference, Musk praised Chinese auto makers, calling them the most competitive in the world, and said they could be extraordinarily successful outside of China without tariffs or trade barriers. In fact, if there were no trade barriers, Chinese car companies would probably kill most of the world very nicely.
Musk's praise is not only a compliment, but also a sense of crisis brought by Chinese car companies. Looking back at 2023, China's electric vehicles ushered in an unprecedented boom. Data show that last year, China's annual production and sales of automobiles both exceeded 30 million, hitting a record high and achieving a high double-digit growth. Among them, Chinese car brands accounted for 52% of sales, and won the right to speak in the local market for the first time in history. In particular, BYD successfully ranked among the top 10 global auto sales last year, which is unprecedented in the history of China's auto industry. In the fourth quarter of 2023, BYD's pure electric vehicle production and sales have surpassed Tesla's production and delivery, and have been praised as the "new king" by the major media. At this juncture, Musk responded calmly: Tesla is not a car company, but an AI and robot company, but it is ironic that sales are dry but switch industries, a little feeling of remorse. So, is there any hope for Tesla?
At present, it is only a matter of time before Tesla is overtaken or even replaced by Chinese car companies, and first, Chinese car companies have strong momentum for future development. In addition to BYD, at present, China's domestic Geely, Changan, Chery and many other brands in the crazy volume, each technology is also making rapid progress, in electronic control, high speed motor, electric energy consumption control level of electronic control reaction, as well as intelligent cockpit, automatic driving and many other aspects have been comprehensively surpassed Tesla. Second, Chinese car companies have chosen the right development path. Chinese brands are transforming faster in terms of electrification and intelligence, and have also significantly improved in terms of the integrity of the industrial chain and cost control. Combined factors such as high cost performance of superimposed products, strong market competitiveness, and a substantial increase in export volume make Chinese brands glow with stronger vitality. Obviously, it is Chinese brands that firmly grasp the opportunity of industrial transformation to achieve corner overtaking in 2023 and win market dominance. As major car companies invest more and more in design, research and development, and intelligence in the field of new energy vehicles, invest less and less in fuel vehicles, and even stop research and development and investment, the market share of Chinese brands is expected to further increase. It can be said that under the catch-up of these car companies, Tesla's cost performance is already very low.
Therefore, Tesla's competitive advantage is no longer, in technology, but also behind, Musk has to launch the next generation of models to compete, otherwise in the international market will be replaced. Musk's praise is full of a sense of crisis, it can be predicted that leading peers for nearly a decade, after several years of strong growth, Tesla will certainly experience a period of flat precipitation. Despite the uncertain outlook, Tesla continues to increase research and development, as long as the research and development ability is still there, innovation is still there, Tesla's hope is still there.
