By
Bena Ilyas
April 23rd, 2024
Nonetheless, Mizuno backed Musk’s contribution to Tesla indicating that “he seems to have incredible bandwidth over his work”.
While Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) has ostensibly missed bankruptcy shots multiple times in its 20-year existence, CEO Elon Musk doesn’t mind if the company heads to a similar path if a competitor EV producer manufactures a better car. These are the words of Tesla board member Hiromichi Mizuno who spoke with CNBC. However, Mizuno noted that he does not agree with Musk’s philosophy and refused to comment if the tech billionaire is overstretched by several roles. Interestingly Mizuno joked about whether Musk is a human or an alien.
Tesla Board Member Shares His Opinion
“I disagree whenever Elon says I don’t mind Tesla getting into bankruptcy if somebody else comes up with a better car,” Mizuno said.
In the past two years, Tesla’s market capitalization has declined by half after scaling to approximately $1.2 trillion during the Covid pandemic. Having rallied approximately 59 percent in the past month, Tesla has a market valuation of about $615.86 billion today.
Nonetheless, Tesla shares are nearly 50 percent down from the ATH, around $414, set in November 2021.
According to the company’s quarterly report, Tesla produced over 439,000 vehicles and delivered over 405,000 vehicles during the fourth quarter of 2022. Reportedly, vehicle deliveries grew by 40 percent YoY to 1.31 million while production grew by 47 percent YoY to 1.37 million in 2022.
As a result, Mizuno is confident the company will continue to do better in the future with over 80 percent of the global vehicle market still using combustion engines. Notably, Mizuno indicated that the competition is not against other EV makers but with the combustion engine manufacturers and regulators to push for electric vehicle adoption.
Nevertheless, Mizuno backed Musk’s contribution to Tesla indicating that “he seems to have incredible bandwidth over his work.”
Tesla and the Market Outlook
Having reported a profitable 2022, the company expects to remain ahead of the long-term 50 percent CAGR with around 1.8M cars for this year. The company indicated that it has enough liquidity to push through its roadmap in 2023. Tesla has promised to deliver the Cybertruck later this year from its gigafactory in Texas.
With China reopening its markets for international trade, Tesla is expected to scale up production that has significantly been curtailed by the Covid restrictions in the country.
As a result, the company has been expanding its global deliveries with its first model Y and Model 3 sent to Thailand.
First Model Y & Model 3 deliveries in Thailand 🇹🇭 https://t.co/8XuvtAkFmg pic.twitter.com/1eUD2tNPhP
— Tesla (@Tesla) February 14, 2023
The company has been able to remain on top of its competitors due to its in-house success in manufacturing battery cells.