A historic first. In September, an electric car model dominated the best-selling ranking in Europe. With 24,600 copies, the Model 3 of the American Tesla outclassed the Renault Clio (18,264 copies), the Dacia Sandero (17,988 copies) and the Volkswagen Golf (17,507 copies).
The collapse of the thermal market
If Tesla's performance is remarkable with sales up 58% compared to September, the American manufacturer has also benefited from the collapse of the thermal market. Clio sales fell 23% over the period, Sandero sales fell 9% and Golfs fell 39% compared to the same month a year earlier.
Hard hit by the semiconductor crisis, manufacturers must shut down factories or offer vehicles with fewer options. Renault estimates, for example, that the shortage of components will lead to a loss of production of 500,000 vehicles in 2021. To date, the shortfall is already 390,000 vehicles for the diamond brand, including 170,000 in the third quarter.
Quite the opposite of Tesla, which is moving forward despite the components crisis. The Californian brand announced a 20% increase in deliveries in the third quarter with a record of more than 241,000 vehicles in July and September. And again, Elon Musk believes that this quarter has been critical and that over the year, deliveries should increase by 50%.
How does Tesla manage to supply itself with chips when historic manufacturers - which produce much larger volumes (and should therefore be delivered as a priority) - have so far failed?
Several elements explain this success of the American manufacturer. First of all, the logistics.
"Tesla has a more efficient supply chain, says Barron's Dan Ives, automotive specialist in the Wedbush fund. Tesla manufactures vehicles in only two factories at the moment: in California and in China, where the most of the chips. Ford, GM and the other big manufacturers have very complex supply chains that put them in the storm. "
Smaller, more agile
Especially in 2020, Tesla has not suspended its semiconductor deliveries unlike the large manufacturers who had to stop their production with the pandemic. As a result, the manufacturer continued to deliver regularly when the rest were hit hard by the chaotic restart of production and competition from competing industries such as telecoms and IT.
Tesla has therefore taken advantage of its small size, its judicious location but also its technological advance. The computer culture of the Californian company has enabled it to compensate for the lack of certain chips by providing it with other models.
“It's not just a matter of swapping out a chip. You also have to rewrite the software,” said Elon Musk on a conference call last July. “It's been an incredibly intense effort to find new chips, write a new firmware, integrate with the vehicle and test to maintain production. "
In its second quarter report, Tesla explains that it has successfully developed and validated 19 new controllers (chips) to address the semiconductor shortage.
If Elon Musk's company suffered less, it still had to slow down the candence in relation to potential demand. The builder still lacked essential parts.
“A big difficulty this quarter has been the module that controls the airbags and seat belts,” explained Elon Musk. “And obviously you can't ship a car without them. 'is difficult to predict. "
The brand has so far sold 627,000 vehicles over the first three quarters of 2021 (against 499,550 delivered in 2020) and aims for a total of 750,000 vehicles delivered over the whole year.
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