Tesla makes fifth quarterly profit in a row - Californians are becoming more cautious for year-end business

Tesla stays on course.

From July to September, the e-car manufacturer was again in the black.

But the biggest surprise came with the free inflows of funds.

• Tesla

  presented its third quarter figures on Wednesday after the US market closed.

• In terms of sales and profit, the company exceeded

  analysts' estimates

  .

• However

  , the company is now unexpectedly cautious

  when it

  comes to targeting

  the full year.

Update from October 21, 11:12 p.m.:

The electric car pioneer

has been in the black for the fifth time in a row.

In the past third quarter, the Californians earned a bottom line of 331 million dollars, as the company announced on Wednesday after the US stock market closed in Palo Alto.

In the same quarter of the previous year,

had

barely made half of that with 143 million dollars.

Sales also went up significantly with an increase of 39 percent to $ 8.77 billion.

In addition, the free cash flow rose sharply to nearly 1.4 billion dollars after 371 million in the previous year.

The company exceeded market expectations.

Analysts had put

sales of $ 8.2 billion and free cash flow of $ 237 million.

At the same time, the Elon

led company

reaffirmed

its goal of

delivering 500,000 vehicles this

year despite the

crisis.

The Californians sold around 320,000 cars from January to September.

Tesla would have to sell 180,000 units in the final quarter.

But it has become more difficult to reach this mark,

said

.

It wasn't until the end of September that Musk had pushed the employees to an exertion in order to achieve the target.

Nevertheless, investors rated the numbers positively.

After the hours of trading,

four percent.

First report from October 21, 5:02 p.m.:

When it comes to self-promotion, Tesla is now relying primarily on the power of two hearts after the dissolution of its own PR department:

and his Twitter channel.

But the

boss also has a huge fan base on the short message service.

39.4 million people follow the multi-entrepreneur on the social network.

Just in time for the quarterly

figures

tonight after the US market closed, Musk

drummed

for the latest

* acquisition - on Twitter, of course.

After that, the Californian e-car pioneer will be delivering its "FSD update" with immediate effect.

Behind the Full Self-Driving Beta is the latest test version for partially automated driving on highways and country roads.

Tesla: New update on partially automated driving

Instead of sensors that only record their surroundings in two dimensions, the new software now compiles a 3D image thanks to on-board technology.

This means that the drive control should be significantly more powerful in the future.

At the start, only the very loyal

fans from the early access program

will receive

the software.

The key data on the new features are still unclear.

But observers expect that

with FSD can now recognize traffic lights and stop signs and slow down and start again independently.

In addition, thanks to the high-tech software, Teslas should also find the right motorway entrance and exit themselves.

But the brave new world of automobiles cannot be completely without people.

According to

, the driver must keep their hands on the steering wheel and be ready to take control of the vehicle again at any time.

Tesla: Management has to face critical investor questions

With the quarterly figures tonight, however, investors are likely to pay less attention to the development status of partially automated driving.

Instead, they should pester the Tesla management with critical questions about production.

In the current year,

actually

wants to

produce 500,000 cars.

But according to the figures presented in advance a week

ago,

almost 330,000 vehicles

rolled

off the

belts

worldwide from January to September

.

So the Californians would have to add another 170,000 units in the final sprint.

That would be 50,000 more than in the previous record quarter.

No wonder analysts are puzzling how the Californians are going to do it.

In addition, analysts are likely to take a close look at developments in operational business.

has last been in the black for four quarters in a row.

However, they were largely due to the sale of CO2 rights.

In the third quarter alone, a good half of the operating result should come from CO2 deals, writes UBS analyst Patrick Hummel in a recent study.

In the public discussion it goes down.