Despite shortages, Tesla generates record profits

Despite supply problems, the automaker managed to deliver 241,300 vehicles in the third quarter, a figure up 20% from the previous one, 76% year on year

Electric-vehicle maker Tesla managed to post record third-quarter profits despite logistical issues hampering its production lines but warned that its ramp-up would depend on the availability of certain items.

“A variety of challenges, from semiconductor shortages to congestion in ports to blackouts, have impacted our ability to run factories at full capacity,” the group said in a statement. communicated. Tesla, however, managed to deliver an unprecedented number of 241,300 vehicles worldwide over the period, a figure up 20% from the previous quarter, 76% year on year.

The ramp-up of its plant in Shanghai was a big contributor, with Chinese-made vehicles being exported to the United States and Europe, CFO Zach Kirkhorn said on a conference call. Elon Musk previously said he was able to get around much of the semiconductor shortage by using new chip designs and rewriting software accordingly.

Other manufacturers are finding it more difficult to face these challenges, for example General Motors having seen its vehicle sales in the United States fall by 33% in the third quarter due to the lack of semiconductors that has forced it since. the beginning of the year, to reduce its production. Tesla is on track to meet its 50% annual growth target but production in the fourth quarter, but that “will depend a lot on the availability of certain components,” Kirkhorn said.

The fact that the company announces that its growth will be dependent on external factors “may have left investors pensive,” said Garrett Nelson of CFRA to justify the reaction of the stock on Wednesday, which fell 0.7% after the trading session. Wall Street despite figures above expectations. But it is up 23% since the start of the year, after having jumped by more than 700% in 2020.

Losing bitcoin

Tesla’s turnover reached $ 13.76 billion between July and September, up 57%. The company’s net income jumped to $ 1.6 billion over the period from $ 331 million a year earlier. The increase in operating profit is “primarily related to growth in vehicle volume and cost reduction,” Tesla said.

The group thus managed to increase the gross margin from its automotive activities to 30.5%, against 28.4% in the previous quarter. The company, which recently announced the move of its headquarters from California to Texas, still aims to begin production at its new plants in Austin and Berlin by the end of the year, Kirkhorn said. . The objective, asserted several times Wednesday the financial director, is to increase the production to meet the strong demand for electric vehicles.

Tesla, which surprised at the start of the year by announcing that it had bought $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, however, once again saw this investment weigh on its results. After earning $ 101 million in the first quarter thanks to the virtual currency, the group had to record a charge of 23 million in the second quarter and then $ 51 billion in the third.

The group, which has long drawn a large part of its profits from the sale to other companies of the carbon credits granted to it because its cars do not emit emissions, continues to see this source dry up: the income generated through these transactions reached $ 279 million in the third quarter, against $ 354 million in the second quarter and $ 518 million in the first.

As he had suggested in July, the whimsical boss of Tesla did not participate in the conference call with analysts on Wednesday. Elon Musk at the time indicated that he would not necessarily participate in this meeting which traditionally follows the publication of the results, “unless there is really something important that I want to say”.

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