Tesla’s rising profitability sets it apart among carmakers. Rivals such as Volkswagen and Stellantis have warned of a squeeze from weaker demand and rising costs. General Motors’ electric vehicles are still lossmaking. But there is another thing that sets Tesla apart: against its peers, it is barely a carmaker at all.
True, Elon Musk’s company reported $20bn of vehicle sales in the third quarter. In a pleasant surprise for investors, the cost of making them fell to an all-time low. Tesla remains a long way from the 20mn car sales target it once set for 2030, but it is on course to meet the more modest 1.8mn analysts expect this year, according to Visible Alpha. Musk said his “best guess” was that output could expand by up to 30 per cent next year.
A rising share of Tesla’s revenue and profit, though, comes from other things. One is selling carbon credits to other carmakers. That brought in $2.5bn of revenue in the past year, equivalent to about a fifth of the company’s total operating cash flow. The other is Tesla’s blossoming battery and solar panel business, growing at 52 per cent year on year, and with higher gross margins than its cars.