Tesla Write Up

The U.S. electric passenger car industry in 2011 was described as being in its infancy, because it is still a new concept to buyers. However there are signs of growth from 2011-2015. Buyers do not consider the car because of price, travel range and vehicle size, along with other secondary concerns.

In this paper I intend to provide a sound financial analysis of Tesla Motors Incorporated. I will do so by calculating and providing liquidity, profitability, and solvency ratios and then evaluating those results. Assessment of these ratios will more or less define Tesla Motors’ abilities to meet its short-term debts and obligations (liquidity), performance in relation to sales, assets, and profits or losses (profitability), and the resulting income amount, after tax deductions, against the company’s liabilities (solvency). Additionally I will compare

As the EV and HEV trend strengthens, key industry players are offering models that directly compete with Tesla. Competing models include the Chevy Volt and Spark, Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius, Ford Focus, Honda Fit, Smart Car, Volkswagen Golf, BMW i3, and Mercedes Benz B-class EV (Grant, 2015). However, Elon Musk does not view these offerings as Tesla’s competition. With only 1% of total vehicle sales going to non-hydrocarbon burning cars, Musk identifies Tesla’s true competition as the gasoline cars with production rates of about 100 million per year (Musk 2014).

Tesla Motors is a global enterprise specializing in the design, production, and marketing of electric powered vehicles founded in 2003 by the young businessman, Elon Musk. Elon is well known for co-founding paypal, and now he amazes the world again with his incredible vision of Tesla Motors, and being the main product architect. Tesla Motors appeals to the environmentally friendly market, by currently being the only company to sell a zero-emission sports car. Tesla’s fundamental motive and selling point is producing only electric vehicles, as opposed to competing companies, producing a combination hybrid, or diesel car.

Tesla`s current objectives include creating a high demand for electric vehicles which ultimately will raise sales. This will be achieved as more awareness on the harm gasoline emissions cause on the environment is shown, and knowledge on electrical powered cars is gained. Tesla also plans to create customer loyalty with current customers and create customer referrals. Tesla will achieve this by continuing to have regular customer events, such as show rooms which display their new technology.

Opportunity: For the overall electric automotive industry and Tesla, they should improve its financial performance through government incentives to alleviate the problem of carbon emissions from its car models.

Reaching the break-even point, the point where there is no loss or gains in terms of profit, proves that Tesla is setting their business up for success as they will begin to see revenue after hitting this mark (Kimmel, Weygandt, & Kieso, 2009). The only problem Tesla faces is the huge demand for their product with more than 5,000 advanced orders pending fulfillment (Morris, 2012). If Tesla is cannot meet this demand while keeping expenses down yet filling these orders in a timely manner, revenue will be lost as well as credibility and reliability of Telsa to deliver to their customers’ needs.

They sell electric vehicles, and electric vehicles only. The most popular car Tesla has released is the Model S, which is a luxury electric sedan that sells for $70,000. The Model S was voted the Motor Trend Car of 2013, and according to Tesla is one of the safest cars ever, but there is one big difference from any other electric car. The battery in each Tesla car is actually made up of thousands of lithium-ion cells, which is different than most electric vehicles. Electricity charges a battery to give the Model S power for a certain period of time, and is similar to a laptop or smartphone. In fact, the company uses lithium-ion batteries just like the type that powers laptops worldwide. This is the key difference between a Tesla electric car and a hybrid, it is all electric and has to be charged, but a car such as a Prius runs partially on gasoline but does not have to be charged. There are a few ways to charge the car. Tesla suggest you get a high power wall charger installed, and there are also supercharging stations across the United States and Canada. When fully charged, the Model S can travel at 55 miles per hour for up to 300 miles. The technology that is put in these cars is so far ahead of the competition; Tesla could very easily be the car company of the future.

As of 2013, Tesla owned 43% of the market share of electric vehicles in Canada (EVWORLD, 2013) and the market is expected to continue to grow, as sustainable energy becomes more of a way of life than a movement.  According to the Government of Canada, “the market for electric vehicles in Canada is growing as Canadians look for cleaner, more efficient vehicles. Research confirms that consumers in North America are willing to pay more for an electric vehicle if the environmental benefits are significant” (Government of Canada, 2010).  With this expedited increase in purchases of electric vehicles, the Tesla Model S is positioned well to obtain its goal of increasing its existing market share.

We design, develop, manufacture and sell high-performance fully electric vehicles and advanced electric vehicle powertrain components. We have established our own network of sales and service centers and Supercharger stations globally thus creating a unique business model in the automobile industry. We

Between 2003 and 2013 Tesla was arguably one of the most controversial companies. An innovative company with a breakdown idea, had no financial success in its first decade. With the addition of Elon Musk in 2008, Tesla had a fresh new face at the stern of its company and was poised to make big strides into the future. Those strides finally broke through in 2013 with its first truly positive financial year. However, this year was not without trouble as Tesla found itself in the news for the wrong reasons. On several occasions their Model S design had issues with car fires. Though this did not cause a complete catastrophe, it cased questions to the true safety of their vehicles. Tesla would fight back by arguing the safety of their vehicles saved the drivers lives in addition to unforeseen circumstances that caused the fires. Because of these incidents, investors did get spooked and expectation for the remainder of 2013 and projected 2014 were lowered, yet once again Tesla powered through and had their best year of existence. With these above factors, Tesla is at a true crossroads: do they continue the uphill climb that 2013 presented, or do they falter and fall pretty to its competitors.

The purpose of this memo is to compare the financial performance of Tesla Motors Inc. to the Bayerische Motoren Werke AG. BMW AG was selected because they are in direct competition with each other in the fully electric power motor vehicles. BMW has been chosen because they currently offer the most fully vehicles on the market compared to any other automotive manufacturer. BMW is also one of the only manufacturers that has invested resources into developing its electronic drive system (I-Drive) instead of buying an existing model of electronic drive system like other car manufacturers such as Mercedes(TechCrunch). After completing a financial analysis of the two companies it can be concluded that Tesla Motors Inc. is in a weaker financial position compared to BMW AG.

Some of the challenges facing Tesla are: cost of lithium will increase, dealing with competitors making similar automobiles and selling its automobile in the mass market.

Tesla Motors, some of you are very likely to bring you, even if others do not follow closely the world of electric cars may not much, in fact in Spain is very difficult to meet with Tesla on the street. I myself saw the first abroad.

The literature reviewed for this assignment comes from information resources ranging from academic journals, internal reports, financial statements, and Tesla’s Form 10-K 2016. The information ranges in date from 2015 – 2017.