Woodkirk Stone
DETROIT (AP) – Record electric vehicle sales last summer amid shortages of computer chips and other materials propelled Tesla Inc. to the biggest quarterly net profit in its history.
The company said on Wednesday it made $ 1.62 billion in the third quarter, breaking the previous record of $ 1.14 billion set in the second quarter of this year. Profit was nearly five times higher than Tesla’s $ 331 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Revenue of $ 13.76 billion from July through September also set a record, but it fell short of Wall Street expectations of just over $ 14 billion, according to FactSet.
Excluding special items such as stock-based compensation, Tesla, based in Palo Alto, Calif., Earned $ 1.86 per share, beating analysts’ estimates of $ 1.62. CEO Elon Musk has said he is moving headquarters to Austin, Texas, Wednesday’s deadline for publication of results.
Part of the quarterly profit, however, comes from the sale of regulatory credits to other automakers. Tesla made $ 279 million in credits during the quarter. Other automakers buy the credits when they can’t meet emission and fuel economy standards.
“A variety of challenges, including semiconductor shortages, port congestion and power outages, have impacted our ability to run factories at full speed,†the company said in a statement. communicated to shareholders. “We believe our supply chain, engineering and production teams have met these global challenges with ingenuity, agility and flexibility unparalleled in the automotive industry. “
Earlier this month, Tesla said it delivered a record 241,300 electric vehicles in the third quarter even as it battled shortages that plagued the auto industry as a whole. Previously, Musk said Tesla kept its manufacturing lines running largely by finding chips from other vendors and then working to rewrite some of the software in its cars to make sure all the technology remained. compatible.
Third-quarter sales were up 72% from 140,000 deliveries made by Tesla for the same period a year ago.
So far this year, Tesla has sold around 627,300 vehicles. This allows him to solidly beat last year’s total of 499,550.
As sales increased in the third quarter, the average selling price fell 6% as Tesla sells cheaper Model 3 and Y and fewer more expensive Model S and X.
Tesla also took a $ 51 million depreciation due to a drop in the value of its Bitcoin holdings.
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note to investors that Tesla’s deliveries and profits are impressive despite an overhang due to the shortage of automotive computer chips. He wrote that demand exceeds supply for Tesla and that Wedbush believes the chip shortage has slashed Tesla’s vehicle sales figures by around 40,000 so far this year.
Still, he predicts Tesla will hit around 900,000 sales this year and around 1.4 million in 2022.
The company said in its statement that construction on its new plant near Austin is progressing as planned and that it is preparing the equipment and “building our first pre-production vehicles.”
The plant, which is centrally located to Tesla’s other assembly plant in Fremont, Calif., Will send small Model Y SUVs and new Cybertrucks to population centers on the east coast.
Tesla has said it plans to expand its plant’s capacity quickly, and over a “multi-year horizon,” it expects sales to grow by an average of 50% per year.
“The rate of growth will depend on the capacity of our equipment, operational efficiency and the capacity and stability of the supply chain,†the company said.
Tesla said its factory in China continues to be its main source of exports. It plans to switch to lithium iron phosphate battery chemistry globally for standard range vehicles.
Shares of Tesla Inc. fell 0.5% to $ 861.14 after-hours Wednesday.
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This story has been corrected to show that Tesla made a net profit of $ 331 million in the third quarter of 2021, not $ 300 million.