As the markets kicked off the first trading day of the year, most stocks were doing relatively well on Monday. Despite growing concerns about virus cases, which hit a record high over the weekend, there was still enough enthusiasm in the markets to see a number of sectors jump. One of those was the electric vehicle sector, where most companies were in the green. The main catalyst was Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) Q4 delivery numbers, which managed to impress analysts once again.
Tesla reported that it managed to set new records in both production and delivery numbers for 2021. Not only were the numbers better than Wall Street’s expectations, but they managed to edge out over the company’s out targets. The car company delivered more than 308,000 cars in the fourth quarter, 40,000 more than originally anticipated. Deliveries were up to 936,000 for the entire year, almost double 2020’s numbers.
While those numbers would be seen as impressive by themselves, they were even more astonishing considering that the car industry is still dealing with supply problems. Additionally, the ongoing chip shortage has been particularly harsh on car companies, with traditional carmakers being the worst hit. However, Tesla has managed to avoid the brunt of this damage.
Going forward, sales are expected to rise to over 1.4 million by 2022, which would be another record-breaking year for the car company. “This was a ‘trophy case’ quarter for Musk & Co. with massive momentum moving into 2022,” tweeted Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives following the news.
Shares of Tesla were up over 13% over the course of the day on the news, breaking a trillion dollar market cap. It wasn’t just Tesla that was moving, however. Other EV companies, including Nio (NASDAQ: NIO), Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI), and XPeng (NASDAQ: XPEV) were all up by a few percentage points by the time Monday’s markets closed.
Despite the great news, Tesla still ended up catching some controversy a bit later in the day. Tesla ended up announcing it opened a new service center and dealership in Xinjiang. However, Tesla and Musk are now catching some criticism for the move, considering that China has faced accusations by the U.S. government and others of oppressing the local Muslim population in that region.
For EV companies, China represents the single largest market out there. Over a billion people live in China, with many of them considering EVs, especially considering the Chinese government’s stance on encouraging electric vehicle adoption throughout the country. That’s why many critics of Elon suspect he’s not going to do much to respond to this public backlash, especially if he thinks he can just wait it out for it to subside.
Tesla Company Profile
Founded in 2003 and based in Palo Alto, California, Tesla is a vertically integrated sustainable energy company that also aims to transition the world to electric mobility by making electric vehicles. It sells solar panels and solar roofs for energy generation plus batteries for stationary storage for residential and commercial properties including utilities. The Tesla Roadster debuted in 2008, Model S in 2012, Model X in 2015, Model 3 in 2017, and Model Y in 2020. Global deliveries in 2019 were 367,656 units. Tesla went public in 2010 and employs about 50,000 people. – Warrior Trading News
