Tesla boss Elon Musk continues to show off: for the first time, his group has earned money for three quarters in a row. While the rest of the industry is suffering from the Corona crisis, the e-car maker is on the up. However, the greatest burdens are still to come.
Palo Alto (dpa) - The US electric car maker Tesla has surprisingly closed the first quarter with black numbers despite the corona pandemic. The bottom line was a profit of $ 16 million (14.7 million euros), as announced by tech billionaire Elon Musk after the US market closed.
Analysts had expected a loss. Tesla did not provide a business outlook due to the high level of uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. It was the third quarter in a row with a surplus - this has never been possible since the company was founded in 2003. In the same period last year, Tesla had suffered a loss of $ 702 million. The company increased sales by 32 percent to just under $ 6 billion. The quarterly figures were significantly better than expected by analysts, with the share temporarily increasing by over ten percent after trading.
In the letter to shareholders, Tesla emphasized that the corona crisis is causing great uncertainty about future business. "It is difficult to predict when vehicle production and the global supply chain will return to their previous levels," the annual report said. Reliable forecasts of profit and cash flow are therefore currently not possible. The annual outlook is to be updated in the next quarterly report.
Tesla actually plans to deliver over 500,000 cars this year, up from 367,500 in the previous year. The company continues to believe this is possible, even if the corona pandemic has raised doubts about the ambitious goal. The biggest challenge is likely to be the current quarter, in which the exit restrictions of the auto industry worldwide are getting worse.
With a share price increase of more than 90 percent this year, Tesla is one of the few winners. The corona pandemic is also causing problems for the electric car pioneer. Tesla had to temporarily suspend production in China and then close its US headquarters in Fremont. The tapes in the factory were stopped last month under pressure from the authorities - much to the chagrin of Tesla chief Musk, who calls for the corona measures to be relaxed.
In the conference call with analysts after the presentation of the quarterly figures, Musk now burst the collar when the restrictions on going out were discussed in California. He believed that it would "lock people up in their homes and violate their constitutional rights". Whoever wanted to stay at home should not be forced to go out. "But to tell people that they cannot leave their house, that they will be arrested, that is fascism, that it is not democratic." At the end of his tirade, Musk demanded that people be given "their goddamn freedom". The conference was then interrupted for several minutes.
Despite the pressures, Tesla delivered more cars than expected. In the three months to the end of March, almost 88,500 units were brought to customers, 40 percent more than in the previous year. 102,672 vehicles were produced. The majority was in Model 3, with which Tesla wants to establish itself in the mass market. The production of the compact SUV Model Y is to be accelerated in the current quarter.
At his first European plant in Grünheide near Berlin, where the first Model Y should come off the assembly line in 2021, Tesla sees himself on schedule. The start of the Tesla Semi electric semitrailer has been postponed again. The corporation has no financial problems in the Corona crisis - after a capital increase in February, Tesla ended the quarter with $ 8.1 billion in cash reserves.