Tesla Becomes Most Valuable Auto Company in the World after Impressive Deliveries and Rollout of Tesla Energy’s Autobidder Platform

eResearch | Last week, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), the global leader in the Electric Vehicle (“EV”) industry, surpassed Toyota Motor Corp. (TYO: 7203) as the world’s largest automobile manufacturer by market capitalization, reaching a value of over US$250 billion after reporting impressive deliveries for Q2/2020. In the past week, Tesla’s stock price continued to surge by over 20% to US$1,372 per share.

CHART 1: TSLA vs S&P 500 – LTM Stock Performance

In Q2/2020, Tesla beat delivery expectations by 29%, reaching 90,650 deliveries compared with expectations of 70,300. The Model 3 and Model Y EVs accounted for 80,050 of total deliveries. However, deliveries fell slightly year-over-year due to the pandemic hindering operations.

In the prior quarter, Tesla delivered 88,400 EVs, bringing total year-to-date deliveries to 158,700. Tesla’s current sales target for this year is 500,000 deliveries, compared with its sales record of 367,500 deliveries last year.

Tesla is striving to become the leader in the global automobile industry, as it aims to be included in the S&P 500 index, which requires a minimum of four consecutive quarters of profitability. So far, Tesla reported profitability in the past three quarters.

Tesla Energy’s Autobidder – Software to Control Energy Assets

Tesla’s Autobidder is a proprietary platform which provides power producers and utility partners the ability to autonomously monetize battery assets through real-time trading, optimization, and management of value-based assets such as renewable energy.

Autobidder is compatible with not just Tesla’s batteries, but also with any other type of renewable energy storage product on the market.

Autobidder’s features include:

• Price forecasting
• Load forecasting
• Generation forecasting
• Dispatch optimization
• Smart bidding

PHOTO 1: Tesla Autobidder User Interface

In Australia, Tesla is already utilizing its Autobidder platform to manage the Hornsdale Power Reserve, also known as the “Tesla Big Battery”, which drove down energy prices in the area by increasing competition through market bidding.

Last month, Tesla received an electricity generation license in the U.K., to allow its Autobidder platform to be offered as a service to improve monetization capabilities for energy storage assets and provide flexibility to the U.K. National Grid at peak usage times.

In the U.K. Fotowatio Renewable Ventures and Harmony Energy Technologies Corp. both announced plans to use Tesla’s Autobidder platform to commission new battery energy storage plants.

Peter Kavanagh, CEO of Harmony Energy, stated:

“Utility-scale battery energy storage is critical to the future of the UK’s energy supply, often seen as the missing link in the UK’s renewable energy strategy, both in terms of controlling grid frequency and providing backup during periods of peak demand and supply.  We’re delighted to have worked closely with Fotowatio Renewable Ventures and Tesla to complete this project, which is the first in our pipeline of battery energy storage plants to be built in the UK.”

Tesla’s energy business has the potential to outgrow its automotive business as it scales to become a distributed global utility, creating an ecosystem where consumers could potentially pay their utility bills to Tesla in the future.

Q2/2020 COVID-19 Impacts

In Q2/2020, Tesla was forced to close a majority of its manufacturing facilities in the U.S. for almost half of the quarter, including its EV facility in Fremont, its battery facility in Nevada, and its solar facility in New York.

Early in the quarter, Tesla also announced reduced salaries for U.S. employees, ranging from cuts of 10% to 30% dependent on the level of position. Last week, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced in an email to employees that salaries will return to normal.

Traditional automobile manufacturers including General Motors Company (NYSE: GM), Toyota Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (BITD: FCA) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), each experienced a greater than 30% decrease in sales during Q2/2020 due to the pandemic forcing dealerships to close and consumers to stay at home.

Tesla is expected to report Q2/2020 earnings by the end of this month. If Tesla is profitable this quarter, it will hit all of the criteria to be added as a constituent to the S&P 500 index, which would be a significant catalyst for the EV company.

Source: eResearch Corp.

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