The financial results for the fourth quarter of 2023 from Tesla Inc., the top U.S. electric automaker, were reported on Wednesday. It showed that the total revenue of the company increased by 3 percent year over year to reach 25.17 billion U.S. dollars.
Tesla’s earnings for the fourth quarter were 71 cents per share, slightly lower than the market’s expectation of 73 cents. In 2023, the company’s total revenue was 96.77 billion dollars, representing a 19 percent increase year over year.
The net income attributable to common stockholders (GAAP) for the company improved to 7.93 billion dollars in the fourth quarter, marking a 115 percent increase year over year. Its yearly net income also experienced a 19 percent growth year over year, reaching 15.0 billion dollars.
Over the fourth quarter, Tesla produced around 495,000 vehicles and delivered over 484,000 vehicles. In 2023, its vehicle deliveries grew by 38 percent year over year to 1.81 million, while production grew by 35 percent year over year to 1.85 million.
Tesla reported having 2.06 billion U.S. dollars in free cash flow at the end of the fourth quarter, marking a 45 percent increase year over year. The company also reached a record annualized run rate of nearly 2.0 million vehicles in the fourth quarter after a scheduled global factory shutdown in the third quarter.
Tesla’s Megafactory in Shanghai, China resumed normal rate production in the fourth quarter, with the updated Model 3 ramping up to full speed in less than two months, the company said.
The financial report by Tesla also noted that the cost of goods sold per vehicle declined sequentially to slightly above 36,000 U.S. dollars. The company continues to focus on further cost reductions throughout the production process.
Tesla’s outlook indicated that it is currently between two major growth waves. The first one began with the global expansion of the Model 3/Y platform and the next one will be initiated by the global expansion of the next-generation vehicle platform.
“In 2024, our vehicle volume growth rate may be notably lower than the growth rate achieved in 2023, as our teams work on the launch of the next-generation vehicle at Gigafactory Texas. In 2024, the growth rate of deployments and revenue in our Energy Storage business should outpace the Automotive business,” it noted.
