Tesla delivers seventh successive quarter profit

Tesla has reported record net income of US$438 million during the first quarter of this year, as well as earnings of US93 cents per share on US$10.389 billion in revenue (up 74%) – again exceeding Wall Street expectations.

The Tesla Semi truck is meanwhile scheduled for release later this year, the Tesla Model 3 has become the world’s best-selling premium sedan, Model Y production is ramping up at Gigafactory Shanghai, Model S Plaid deliveries are expected soon, the new Model S deliveries start in May and new Model X deliveries begin later in 2021.

The company says in its latest earnings release that microchip shortages which have impacted the automotive industry have been largely overcome by moving very quickly to new microcontrollers, while simultaneously developing firmware for new chips made by new suppliers.

“We’re going to aim to produce 2000 Model S and Model X per week,” chief executive Elon Musk says, adding he expects demand to be high for the two EVs.

Gigafactories Berlin and Texas are expected to see volume production in 2022.

Musk says Tesla has a small factory for producing its new 4680 cells but he doesn’t believe they’ll be put in its cars just yet and is confident volume production will come next year.

Tesla faces some challenges with continuing global supply issues, working with partners to address that, while the company is also working to complete its full self-driving (FSD) suite with a focus on evolving to a vision-based autonomous system.

The company has trimmed its bitcoin investment by 10%, producing a US$272 million profit.

Revenue for Tesla’s energy generation and storage business nearly doubled.

Musk wants homes with solar rooftops and batteries from Tesla to provide a “giant distributed utility”.