Tesla announced a $3.3 billion profit in its first quarter net earnings on Wednesday. These earnings are over seven times higher than the previous year's. The company performed strongly against global supply challenges and production cuts in China due to the lockdowns.
The company's shares surged almost 5 percent to $1,024 after the announcement was made. With $18.7 billion registered in revenue, the electric vehicle and solar panel company manufactured over 305,000 vehicles and delivered over 310,000 vehicles from January through March worldwide. The company-delivered vehicles include 295,324 Model 3 and Model Y in addition to 14,724 for the Model S and X.
Multiple price hikes are assumed to be the reason behind these financial results, mostly for those vehicles which are meant to counterbalance the growing costs of expensive metals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and a few others used for making batteries. CBS reports that the Model X SUV now costs $114,900; the Model S costs $99,990; the Model 3 Performance costs $61,990; and Model Y costs $62,990.
The year 2022 is increasingly becoming a fortunate one for Tesla, as apart from the huge profits earned the company also managed to inaugurate factories in Berlin on 22nd March and in Austin, Texas, on 8th April.
Tesla also had to combat numerous challenges which emerged due to the Shanghai factory shut down following Covid-19 restrictions. The costs of the new factories, in addition to the obstacles to continuing the operations in Shanghai, were assumed to negatively impact Tesla's numbers for this quarter, but the company successfully managed to maneuver itself much better than its competitors following the supply chain challenges worldwide.
The company, in a letter to its investors, said, "although limited production (at the Shanghai factory) has recently restarted, we continue to monitor the situation closely."
Production in Berlin began last month along with Model Y deliveries from Texas in April, as per Tesla's announcement, further mentioning that this year they will shortly begin with the production of its structural battery packs with 4680 cells in Texas in addition to the standard packs with 2170 cells.
"It seems likely that we'll be able to produce one and a half million cars this year", CEO Elon Musk predicts when mentioning that the company has plans to boost production in 2022.
