Tesla Motors's revenue and market capitalization

Strong performance in 2020

For the first time in its history, Tesla Group has achieved a profitable year in 2020. For the year as a whole, the carmaker recorded a net profit of 721 million dollars. This strong performance was driven by growing consumer interest in electric vehicles.

Since its creation in 2003 and for several years, the group had concentrated on increasing its production. Until now, it had never been able to achieve good profitability over the one-year period. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the company made a profit of $270 million.

Excluding exceptional items, adjusted earnings per share were 80 cents. The market was expecting a value of $1.01. Elon Musk's group had achieved sales of $10.7 billion in the period from October to December 2020, up 46% year-on-year.

For the full twelve months of 2020, the company's revenue reached $31.5 billion. It reported a 28% increase over the previous year. The company's gross margin was 19.2%. However, it fell short of market expectations of 23.5%.

Record deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2020

In the last quarter of the 2020 fiscal year, the carmaker set a new record for vehicle deliveries. In this period, Tesla delivered 180,570 cars. This number far exceeds market estimates. The market was expecting 174,000 vehicle deliveries in the quarter.

In Q4-2020, the company produced 179,757 cars. In its history, the company has never before delivered more than 150,000 vehicles in a single quarter. In the third quarter of 2020, it set a previous record of 139,300 units.

About car deliveries over the year

In recent years, Tesla has invested billions of dollars in building new facilities and models. This investment has paid off for the electric vehicle manufacturer. In particular, it has enabled the company to renovate its factory in Fremont, California.

For its part, the Shanghai factory has begun to deliver its first cars since the end of 2019. For the whole of the 2020 financial year, the company delivered 499,550 vehicles. This is a fine performance achieved, despite the Covid-19 health crisis. The company is not far from reaching its target of half a million deliveries, set at the beginning of the year.   

In detail, the Model Y, the crossover and the Model 3 (the company's top-of-the-line car) accounted for about 86% of total deliveries. The remaining percentage is split between the Model X gullwing SUV and the Model S sedan. In addition, it should be noted that in the spring the company had to temporarily suspend production at its Fremont, California plant.

This was due to the coronavirus pandemic. In its ambitions for the future, the manufacturer intends to continue with the same dynamic for growth in its deliveries. Indeed, Tesla is aiming for an average increase of 50% per year for its vehicle deliveries. This should be achieved over several years.

To achieve this result, the company is counting on a resumption of production in its factories currently under construction in Texas and Berlin. It also plans to accelerate production at the Shanghai site. At the Shanghai site, the company says it has begun production of the Model Y. In addition, it intends to start the first deliveries of the "Made in China" crossover.

In addition, the company also benefited in 2020 from the sharp increase in credits granted by the authorities to manufacturers of non-emitting vehicles.

Tesla's market capitalisation and dividend in 2020

In 2020, Tesla's share price benefited greatly from investor interest in electric vehicles. As a result, over the year as a whole, it has risen by around 750%. In December 2020, the company joined the prestigious S&P 500 stock index, which is actually made up of the 500 largest capitalisations in the US markets.

With an estimated market capitalisation of more than $700 billion, the company entered the S&P 500 with a worthy ranking of 7th in the largest market valuations. It was behind the GAFAMs, but ahead of Berkshire Hathaway.

At that time, the market capitalisation of the American company was a record for the automotive industry worldwide. For the record, it was higher than the combined valuation of the giants: General Motors, Ferrari, Toyota, BMW and Volkswagen.

In addition, the dividend represents a portion of the company's profits that is distributed to its shareholders as a form of remuneration. So far, Tesla does not yet pay a dividend. Also, the company does not plan to do so in the near future.

In fact, the carmaker prefers to keep all the profits from its activities. This should allow it to finance its future growth.

More about Tesla

Founded in 2003, Tesla is an American company based in California, USA. It is a manufacturer of electric vehicles for the general public. One of the company's goals is to accelerate the global transition to a sustainable energy future.

In the automotive market, the Tesla group stands out from its competitors through the performance and on-board technology of its cars, particularly Autopilot.