Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) recently impressed investors when they announced Q4 ‘21 adjusted earnings of $2.52 ($0.16 above consensus estimates) on revenue of $17.72B ($1.15B above consensus estimates). Net income was up 760% to $2.32B while enjoying a 27.4% gross margin.

They smashed their previous record by delivering 308,600 vehicles in the quarter surpassing the company’s previous record of 241,300 vehicles in the prior quarter. Going forward, they continue expanding production in their original plant in Freemont, CA and in Shanghai, China combined with new production lines in Berlin, Germany, and Austin, Texas, Tesla will continue to break delivery records quarter over quarter for the foreseeable future. 

Photo by Austin Ramsey on Unsplash

In the U.S., EVs represent only 2.6% of all vehicles sold but 7 out of 10 of those is a Tesla (estimates are that approximately 50% of all new vehicles sold will be electric by the end of this decade). While the competition is heating up with traditional automakers and newcomers such as Lucid LCID and Rivian RIVN, Tesla is in the leadership position and will be difficult to unseat with their uniquely direct business model, installed infrastructure for production growth, loyal owners, highly reliable vehicles, highly ranked Supercharger network, green energy production, and world-class autonomous driving software. 

As Tesla continues to deliver autos throughout the globe, investors should take note today of their future plans to monetize its massive, world-leading amount of car data. Tesla will use this data for high-margin programmatic advertising to their loyal fan base, insurance partnerships for actuarial intelligence, and other data-sharing mobility opportunities through Tesla’s operating system interface. While their current profits come primarily from automobile production, the future looks very bright for Tesla and its enormous profit-making potential in car data.  

Before closing out this article, Tesla and its new Austin facility remind me of another company with incredible potential in the future. Ideal Power, Inc. (Nasdaq: IPWR) is an Austin, TX-based provider of Bi-Directional Bi-Polar Junction Transistors. B-TRAN is a breakthrough technology that improves conduction losses by a factor of 5X vs. legacy bidirectional power semiconductors and will help manufacturers such as Tesla and other EV makers perform with efficiencies never achieved before. B-TRAN’s breakthrough design provides a 75% reduction in components vs. currently installed bi-directional power switches and the end result is smaller, faster, much more efficient products that generate less waste heat, which in turn significantly reduces the need for costly and bulky thermal management systems. B-TRAN also has significant market potential in other major market applications including: EV charging stations, battery energy storage systems, solid-state circuit breakers, UPS systems for data centers, and other industrial electric motor applications. Ideal Power has 65 patents on their new, disruptive, super-efficient bi-directional power switching devices and have attracted an impressive list of collaboration and evaluation partners. Commercialization is currently expected in late 2022, so patient, long-term thinkers are best suited for this opportunity.