The German automotive industry is in crisis – companies like Volkswagen (ETR:VOWG_p), Mercedes and BMW are struggling with declining profits and job cuts. At the same time, Chinese carmakers like BYD are catching up with affordable electric cars. The 2024 ranking shows which companies generate the most revenue worldwide (based on 2023 data). And where Tesla stands after the publication of the quarterly figures is examined below the ranking.
Top 10 carmakers by revenue:
- Volkswagen (Germany): Volkswagen leads the ranking with record revenue of $348.5 billion and 9.2 million vehicles sold worldwide.
- Toyota (Japan): The Japanese carmaker generated revenue of $292 billion and sold 11.2 million units, making it the manufacturer with the highest sales.
- Stellantis (LON:0QXR) (Netherlands): the group, formed in 2021 from the merger of FCA and PSA, generated $204.9 billion in revenue and sold 6.4 million vehicles.
- Ford (USA): famous for its assembly line production, Ford generated $176.2 billion in revenue and sold 4.4 million cars.
- General Motors (NYSE:GM) (USA): GM managed a comeback after previous crises with 171.8 billion USD and 6.2 million vehicles sold.
- BMW (Germany): With 168.1 billion USD in sales and almost 2.6 million vehicles sold, BMW ranks sixth.
- Mercedes-Benz (Germany): Mercedes achieved 165.4 billion USD in sales and sold around 2.5 million vehicles.
- Honda (Japan): The group generated a turnover of 148.8 billion USD and is also a leading manufacturer of motorcycles.
- Hyundai (South Korea): Hyundai recorded a turnover of 124.6 billion USD and sold 4.2 million vehicles worldwide.
- SAIC (China): With a turnover of 102.5 billion USD and around 5 million vehicles, SAIC is in tenth place.
China produces the most vehicles, with 30.1 million, followed by the USA with 10.6 million and Japan with nine million. Despite this volume, only one Chinese carmaker has managed to break into the top 10.
Are the problems of the German automotive industry being exaggerated?
When we talk about the problems specifically facing the German automotive industry, we should bear in mind that the whole issue is still taking place at a very high level. Profits are still abundant and this certainly allows the major changes to be financed. They have money and they have very good employees.
However, they are facing the biggest changes in decades. The transformation process from a production focused purely on combustion engines to a two-pronged approach to pure electric vehicle manufacturers will in any case lead to major upheavals – with or without subsidies, and with or without growing competition from China. The latter is perhaps even a good thing, because it will lead to processes being questioned and changed earlier and innovations being initiated more quickly.
And where does Tesla stand? Can Elon Musk save himself at the last minute?
Tesla is showing strong growth in the third quarter, with impressive revenue growth of eight per cent to $25.1 billion despite a challenging market for electric vehicles. While the car segment only grew by two per cent, Tesla was able to achieve a full 52 per cent growth with battery storage and solar modules, which indicates a booming energy storage market. The profit margin was also higher than expected, as Tesla was able to reduce production costs by six per cent and generate additional revenue from the sale of emission credits.
Elon Musk announced the quarterly figures and revealed that Tesla would be launching more affordable models in the first half of 2025 that would also have autonomous driving functions. Musk is anticipating growth of 20 to 30 per cent next year, although he did not address how rising interest rates could affect car loans.
It was only in October that Tesla presented its robot taxi, which is to cost less than $30,000 from 2026 and be produced in the millions annually. However, this vision is directly linked to regulatory approval of autonomous driving, which is still unclear. Unlike its competitors, Tesla relies exclusively on cameras for its autonomous technology and does without additional safety features such as lidar. A daring move that requires a great deal of trust in Tesla's own system – and which is met with great scepticism by industry insiders. German carmakers, especially Mercedes-Benz and BMW, are already one step ahead technologically, but are also still facing regulatory and legal problems.
Although Musk repeatedly makes political statements and was even active in Trump's election campaign, he skilfully avoids questions about the political future. A possible Trump administration could be beneficial for Tesla if a national regulation for the approval of autonomous vehicles is introduced. An accelerated approval process that takes into account all providers could help Tesla with the rollout of autonomous robotaxis. Musk made it clear that the company would equip its vehicles with new hardware free of charge should the current setup not be sufficient for fully autonomous driving.
Elon Musk thus remains a master at appealing to investors' imaginations and raising expectations, even if concrete results are still a long time coming. We examine in detail how this is reflected in Tesla's share price on our website. Also the following stocks: BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, BYD, Xiaomi and Ferrari (NYSE:RACE).
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