Tesla has surprisingly closed the third quarter with a profit. The bottom line, the American electric car maker earned $ 143 million (128 million euros), as the company announced on Wednesday after US market close.
This Tesla boss Elon Musk could still fulfill his promise of black numbers, which analysts had not given him in view of the high expansion costs. The result was ultimately positive, but still 54 percent lower than a year ago.
Nevertheless, investors responded with satisfaction, allowing the stock to rise more than ten percent after-hours. Tesla's revenues fell sharply. Despite a record of 97,000 cars delivered, sales fell 8 percent to $ 6.3 billion.
In a letter to the shareholders, Musk was "extremely confident" that Tesla will deliver more than 360,000 vehicles to customers in 2019. Analysts thought this was difficult to achieve so far. In the third quarter, Tesla said it sold 79,600 Model 3 vehicles, beating expectations. The Model 3 is a crucial element in Musk's growth strategy.
The China project is going as planned
It also appealed to investors that plans for car production in Shanghai are nearing completion. Tesla is in the process of obtaining the necessary licenses and will soon start manufacturing in China, the company said. By the end of the year, Tesla wants to build at least 1000 vehicles of the model 3s per week there.
This should boost sales in the world's largest car market and avoid import duties for US cars. However, there are still uncertainties with regard to workers and suppliers.