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Elon Musk in German Tesla factory (March 2022)
Photo: POOL / via REUTERS
His takeover ambitions on Twitter are increasingly becoming a mud fight – Elon Musk can use positive news from the core business.
And the current Tesla business figures are, at least in part, quite positive.
The electric car maker has also increased its profit thanks to price increases.
In the past quarter, the bottom line was $2.26 billion, compared with $1.14 billion a year ago, the group announced on Wednesday after the US stock market closed.
Tesla has raised the prices of its vehicles several times this year.
Among other things, this should compensate for higher costs for lithium, which is used in the batteries, and for aluminium.
Tesla shares gained around 4 percent in after-hours trading.
However, second-quarter revenue fell to $16.93 billion from $18.76 billion, below analyst expectations.
This ended a series of record sales as Tesla had to temporarily close its Shanghai plant due to a lockdown.
There were also production problems in new plants.
Always new problems - and gloomy words from the boss
Tesla boss Elon Musk said in June that the new factories in Grünheide near Berlin and Texas were currently losing “billions”.
He spoke literally of "giant money incinerators."
The reason is a lack of batteries and supply chain problems due to the situation in the Chinese ports.
The past two years have been an "absolute nightmare" due to supply chain disruptions and new problems: "And we're not done with it yet." To be able to pay employees and not go broke.
While high start-up costs and losses are relatively normal for new plants like Grünheide and Austin in the start-up phase when ramping up production, Tesla also faced challenges with its Shanghai plant.
"The Covid shutdowns in China have been very, very difficult to say the least," Musk said last month.
jok/Reuters