TDespite pandemic-related production outages in China and ongoing supply chain issues, Tesla nearly doubled second-quarter earnings. The electric car maker earned a bottom line of 2.3 billion dollars, 98 percent more than in the same period last year. This was announced by Elon Musk’s group on Wednesday after the US stock market closed. Analysts had expected significantly less profit. In the previous quarter, however, the result was still at a much higher $3.3 billion.
Tesla increased sales by 42 percent year-on-year to $16.9 billion. Despite the persistent difficulties caused by material bottlenecks and production disruptions, the group confirmed its ambitious goal of delivering around 50 percent more cars this year than in 2021. Tesla only brought 254,695 vehicles to its customers in the second quarter – the first decline compared to the previous quarter in around two years. But the group is assuming a “record-breaking” second half of the year.
Grünheide produces 1000 cars a week
In Tesla’s large US car plant Fremont and in Shanghai – where there were still outages due to Covid lockdowns a few months ago – the highest monthly production rates to date have recently been recorded, Tesla further announced. The European factory in Grünheide near Berlin is also slowly getting going – 1000 Model Ys rolled off the assembly line here in just one week, which Tesla described as an “important milestone”. In May, Musk complained about problems with ramping up production in Grünheide and in the new US plant in Austin and described the locations in an interview as “gigantic money incinerators”.
Tesla also delivered surprising news about its Bitcoin investment: According to the annual report, the company had sold around 75 percent of it at the end of the quarter, which increased the cash balance on the balance sheet by $936 million in the past quarter. Tesla had invested around $1.5 billion in the digital currency in 2021, which caused a stir at the time. A part was sold again a short time later. The Bitcoin price collapsed massively in the past quarter.
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