A double whammy of a global shortage of chips and ships is the only thing standing in the way of Tesla Inc maintaining sales growth in excess of 50 percent, according to CEO Elon Musk.
“We’ve had a fantastic year, we had record vehicle deliveries,” Musk told Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas, on Thursday. “It looks like we have a good chance of maintaining that. Basically, if we can get the chips, we can do it. Hopefully this chip shortage will alleviate soon but I feel confident of being able to maintain something like at least above 50 percent for quite a while.”
While the chip shortage has dominated auto-industry headlines this year, Musk said the electric-car maker was grappling with “lots” of supply chain challenges.
Photo: AP
“One of the biggest challenges we had in Q3 was, can we get enough ships,” he said, referring to a backlog of cargo ships that has been occurring for much of the year.
The chip shortage does not appear to be slowing Tesla just yet. The company earlier this week reported record deliveries of 241,300 cars worldwide in the third quarter, beating the previous high of 201,250 vehicles in the second quarter.
Tesla’s numbers compare favorably with the rest of the auto industry, which saw US vehicle sales slump in the latest three-month period due to limits on production from supply chain shortages. General Motors Co took the biggest blow, with sales in its home market dropping by a third in the latest quarter.
Musk said the “significant cost pressure” in the supply chain had forced Tesla to increase vehicle prices, at least temporarily.
“The sheer amount of money we’re spending on flying parts around the world isn’t great,” Musk said.
It could be at least 12 months before the situation starts to improve.
“We should be through our severe supply chain shortages in [2023],” he said. “I’m optimistic that will be the case.”
Tesla said it is moving its corporate headquarters to Austin, Texas, where a new factory for the Model Y and forthcoming Cybertruck is nearing completion, relocating from California after 18 years.
Musk announced the move at the Austin plant on Thursday during Tesla’s shareholders’ meeting.
Tesla is the latest California-based company to move to Texas, which has lower taxes, a lower cost of living and fewer business regulations. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co shifted its base to Houston, and Charles Schwab Corp moved its headquarters to the Dallas area from San Francisco.
The carmaker joins a number of other tech companies with operations in Austin. Dell Technologies was founded in the city, and Apple Inc and Facebook Inc have a large presence there.
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS