Tesla loses billions With US stocks officially entering the bear market recently and with concerns that the next recession is upon us, companies are walking another tightrope.
Consumer goods companies including big multinational brands have employed various measures to protect their profit margins and cushion the impact of skyrocketing inflation and weakening consumption. Even household name brands have not been spared from these factors.
Tesla loses billions
Silicon Valley-based car giant Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), which many consider as a tech company rather than a carmaker, recently acknowledged that it is losing “billions of dollars” from the global battery shortage and supply chain disruptions in China.
Tesla operates a ‘gigafactory’ in Shanghai, which was shuttered for weeks due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the city.
Aside from the disruptions caused by the lockdown, Tesla is also facing challenges in procuring batteries to power its cars. The company recently hiked the prices of its China-made Model Y due to the higher costs of the raw materials included in batteries.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also revealed that the company’s newest car factories in Texas and Berlin are losing money “because there’s a ton of expense and hardly any output.”
“Getting Berlin and Austin functional and getting Shanghai back in the saddle fully are overwhelmingly our concerns. Everything else is a very small thing basically,” Musk said.
Tesla investors appear to have taken the news in their stride, with TSLA stock price hugging close to US $700 per share, and the Chaikin Volatility Index not indicating any abnormal change in daily price ranges.
