Tesla: When it comes to profit per vehicle, only one manufacturer in the world is better - and it comes from Germany

Created: 02/08/2022, 08:46

By: Markus Hofstetter

Tesla is said to earn around $9,000 on every Model 3 sold © Mark Reinstein/imago

At Tesla, the economies of scale in production are becoming more and more effective.

As a result, the US manufacturer can make a profit per vehicle that many others can only dream of.

Munich – Tesla* was once smiled at by the long-established car manufacturers.

But the times are over.

The US electric car manufacturer has developed into a pioneer under CEO Elon Musk*, and not just technologically.

Tesla also seems to be ahead of most of its competitors economically.

The online magazine

used Tesla's business figures to calculate how much the carmaker earns per vehicle.

Accordingly, in the third and fourth quarters of 2021, the production costs per vehicle (COGS Cost of Goods Sold) fell to around $36,000.

That is the equivalent of around 31,400 euros (as of February 7th).

The COGS therefore include all costs and expenses related to production.

Excludes overhead, sales and marketing.

The latter in particular should be small, however, since Tesla has abolished its PR department*.

Tesla: falling production costs

And the production costs should continue to fall.

"We believe our current projects, including large castings*, structural battery packs, the 4680 battery cells, and many others, can help us further minimize our production costs," Tesla said in its annual report.

It is not said which Tesla model it is.

However, the price in particular points to a Tesla Model 3*.

In its home market, the US automaker is offering the model as its cheapest vehicle, according to

for around $44,990, which equates to around €39,200.

With production costs of around $36,000, the profit would be almost $9,000 (€7,800).

Volkswagen* can only dream of it.

In mid-2020, VW boss Herbert Diess * stated that the car manufacturer would have to add around 5,000 euros to each e-Up.

All other Tesla models are significantly more expensive.

Buyers must pay at least $60,000 for a Model Y and at least $95,000 for a Model S.

At least $105,000 is due for the Model X.

However, it is not known how the profits per vehicle turn out in these cases.

Tesla: Only Porsche is more profitable

A classification of where Tesla stands with this profit per vehicle is provided by calculations by the Center Automotive Research (CAR)* by Ferdinand Dudenhöffer*, which were published in August 2020 and relate purely to the German market.

The profits from the pure car business were divided by the number of cars sold.

No distinction was made between electric cars and vehicles with combustion engines.

It should also be taken into account that the Corona * pandemic began during this period.

According to this, Porsche* is the most profitable car manufacturer in relation to the first half of 2020, with a profit of 9853 euros per vehicle.

Then Tesla follows with 2890 euros, although the proceeds from the sale of CO2 certificates to other car manufacturers have been included.

The few other automakers that made profits are GM (780 euros per vehicle sold), Skoda* (748 euros), PSA (707 euros) and Toyota* (533 euros).

BMW loses money with every car: Production costs are to fall by 25 percent

All other brands lose money with every car sold.

At VW it is 313 euros per vehicle, at Audi* 559 euros, at Mercedes* 599 euros and at BMW* even 1135 euros.

The luxury brand Bentley is the negative leader with a loss of 19,800 euros per car.

BMW has already reacted to this.

In the middle of last year, the Bavarian car manufacturer announced that it wanted to drastically reduce production costs* by 25 percent by 2025.