American electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) reported record deliveries for the first quarter of 2022, highlighting a superb start to the year. Despite persistent global supply chain issues, inflationary pressures, and factory shutdowns, Tesla’s fanbase has ensured that the company’s performance is not dimmed by any external factors.
Increasing gas prices and consumers’ enhanced awareness of their carbon print have propelled the EV industry, and Tesla remains one of the hot picks in the segment.
Tesla shares gained almost 57% over the past year, albeit losing 9.6% year-to-date amid the ongoing geopolitical environment.
Tesla Q1 Deliveries in Detail
Tesla delivered a total of 310,048 EVs in Q1FY22, and manufactured over 305,000 vehicles. The deliveries came in line with analyst predictions of about 310,000. The figure was revised downwards by analysts in late March due to ongoing challenges. Earlier, analysts had predicted a more optimistic number of 315,000 deliveries.
Of the total deliveries, Tesla delivered 295,324 Model 3 and Model Y cars. Meanwhile, Model S and Model X deliveries stood at 14,724 in the quarter.
Bowing to inflationary pressures, Tesla even hiked the prices of its vehicles twice by around $12,500, yet it did not hamper the company’s deliveries.
1M Deliveries in 2022
Tesla has the ambitious target of delivering 1 million EVs by 2022. In 2021, Tesla was almost close to the target, delivering 936,000 cars through two active plants in Fremont and Shanghai.
Tesla has already started deliveries from its Berlin Gigafactory in March this year, and Giga Texas is close to delivering its first cars to customers. Both these plants will add to production at Fremont and China, enabling Tesla to reach its targeted deliveries in 2022.
With solid Q1 deliveries, Tesla has already made one-third of its slated figure for the year. The only hindrance could be the continued stoppage of its Shanghai factory caused by the nationwide lockdown due to the Omicron variant.
Yet, five days after the Shanghai factory shut down was initiated, the company has stated that it will not be able to resume production today, on April 4.
Peer Comparison
As per a TrueCar report, Tesla was the only EV maker to register a positive growth rate from March 2021 to February 2022. Tesla registered 93.2% growth over the period, while the other EV makers all registered losses. Tesla even beats the industry average in terms of all major valuation metrics.
Ford’s (F) deliveries fell 27.6% and General Motors (GM) lost 16.5%. Meanwhile, Volkswagen registered its biggest fall of 44.3%. Kia was the only other EV maker to witness a lower than 10% fall in deliveries in the same period.
Analysts’ View
Calling Tesla’s Q1 delivery “better than feared” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $1,400, which implies 29.1% upside potential to current levels.
Ives attributed the China shutdowns and logistics issues for delivering autos to Europe as two major reasons for the subdued Q1 numbers, which the Street had earlier projected to be higher.
Commenting on his optimistic view on TSLA, Ives said, “We believe roughly 20k-25k units were pushed out of 1Q into 2Q due to the logistical and factory issues which make this underlying demand number still look strong with a robust trajectory for the rest of 2022.”
Overall, the TSLA stock commands a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 15 Buys, five Holds, and six Sells. The average Tesla price target of $1,014.04 implies 6.5% downside potential to current levels.
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