The Chinese market saves Tesla again on the chip issue

The shortage of automotive electronic chips has forced many car companies to suspend production or reduce production of vehicles. Some institutions predict that the shortage of chips will reduce global automobile production by 10% in the first quarter. This also means that when supply exceeds demand, car companies' sales in the first quarter are bound to decline to a certain extent compared with the same period.

Tesla is the most popular electric car brand in the world. In this “chip shortage” tide, the automaker successfully escaped danger. In the first quarter, the delivery volume not only did not decline, but set a record high. Insiders believe: "The company has achieved record deliveries because of strong Chinese demand, which helps offset the global shortage of auto parts.

At the end of December last year, there were media reports that affected by the epidemic, the shortage of chips might lead to tight supply and demand in the automotive industry. Before long, brands such as Volkswagen, Ford, and General Motors announced production cuts and even closed factories to deal with the crisis. In such an unfavorable situation, some car companies have made the decision to abandon their cars to protect their handsomeness in order to ensure higher interests. Daimler will give priority to the limited supply of chips to the production of Mercedes-Benz S-Class and other models, which will bring higher profit margins.

The shortage of automotive chips has not been resolved, and the sudden natural disasters have exacerbated the supply of chips that are already out of control. In February of this year, the blizzard weather in Texas, the United States, caused the local power supply system to fail. The local factories of Samsung, NXP, Infineon and other chip giants announced the suspension of production.

The cold wave in the central and southern United States has worsened the already tight automotive chip production capacity, and it has now evolved into a global event. In March this year, Volvo, Hyundai, Ford, Subaru and other car companies closed some factories. What is worrying is that in the future, there may be more car companies caught in the whirlpool of chip shortage.

Compared with other auto parts, auto chips are an industry with a higher threshold, and the delivery cycle is at least 3 to 6 months, and it is necessary to ensure high stability of the 15-year service cycle. Therefore, industry insiders predict that global automotive chip shortages may last until the first half of 2021.

With a wailing sound, Chinese car companies once again heard the news of suspension of production. On March 26, NIO announced that its plant in Hefei would suspend production for 5 working days and lowered its first-quarter delivery expectations. Industry experts believe that under the background of the increasing popularity of new energy vehicles and smart cars and the increasing demand for automotive chip applications, this incident has a more serious impact on emerging automakers led by NIO.

While the industry was worried about new car-making forces, Tesla, the leading brand of electric vehicles, announced its first quarter report. Not only did the sales volume not decline, but the delivery volume hit a record high.

According to Tesla's first quarter production and delivery report, it produced more than 180,000 vehicles worldwide and delivered nearly 1.848 million vehicles. It broke the delivery record of 180,570 vehicles set by Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2020, exceeding market expectations. After the release of this data, Sla's stock price soared nearly 8% in pre-market trading on Monday.

Several institutions have raised their price targets for Tesla stock. Brokerage Wedbush is the most aggressive, raising its target price from US$950 to US$1,000, which is much higher than the Wall Street investment bank's median target price of US$712.50. The rating has also been upgraded from "neutral" to "outperform."

A series of good news, in the final analysis, is that its sales volume has achieved amazing results in the Chinese market. Musk tweeted: "The Tesla team did a very good job, especially the Tesla China team!"

In addition, Tesla also announced that the new Model S and Model X are in the early stages of increasing production, and the new equipment has been installed and tested in the first quarter. Model Y has received a warm welcome in China and is rapidly increasing production to achieve full production.

Some experts said: "An important reason for the popularity of Chinese-made Model Y is that the price of the vehicle is in sharp contrast with the previous higher pre-sale price, which is even lower than many consumers' expectations." Huachuang Securities pointed out that the current Model Y In China, where supply is in short supply, the official website shows that the earliest delivery date for the current order is June 2021.

This is not the first time that China has rescued Tesla from a crisis. As early as 2018, Tesla was not well-known at that time. It was on the verge of bankruptcy because of spending too fast and high loss figures. At this time, China took the lead in throwing an olive branch to it.

It is better to give charcoal in the snow than icing on the cake. In the second half of 2018, Tesla officially acquired more than 1,200 acres of land in Shanghai Lingang to build a factory, and soon received a 3.5 billion loan from a Chinese bank.

After crossing the line of life and death, Tesla ushered in a bright moment. In 2019, Tesla's revenue in the Chinese market was US$2.979 billion, a year-on-year increase of 69.55%. The year 2020 is even more unstoppable, with sales and stock prices flying together, and the number one electric vehicle ranking in China, with sales of nearly 140,000 vehicles, once again set a new record high.

Summary: For Tesla, the Chinese market is a life-saving straw." At the moment of life hanging by, as long as it is sought after by Chinese consumers, it will leave a trace of vitality to fight with its competitors. Based on this, let both of them. The relationship is even closer. At present, the Chinese market accounts for about 30% of the total global sales of the Tesla brand. However, with the launch of Model Y and the launch of Model 3 after the mid-term facelift, Tesla's proportion of total sales in the Chinese market will further increase.