MILANO – Tesla are traveling despite the difficulties related to production in China, due to the restrictions in an anti-Covid key.
The electric car house of the volcanic Elon Musk reported an increase in quarterly profit beyond expectations: thanks to a series of price increases on its best-selling vehicles, it was able to offset the production blocks linked to the pandemic, recorded in recent months in the Shanghai factory. Analysts thought these impacts would be stronger. Despite everything, however, there was the first sequential decline in earnings in over a year.
Tesla has raised the prices of its cars several times over the course of 2022 to cope with the higher costs of the lithium used in the batteries and the aluminum used for the car body.
The net profit of Elon Musk’s automotive group was $ 2.3 billion in the quarter, nearly double the second quarter of last year. Earnings were $ 2.27 per share, while analysts expected $ 1.83. Turnover, on the other hand, was more disappointing, at $ 16.9 billion. Tesla delivered 254,695 Vehicles in the three months to June, an increase of 27% compared to the same period last year but down from the 310,048 Units delivered in the first quarter. The electric vehicle maker’s stock in afterhours rose 3% shortly after the results were released but then lost stakes. Since the beginning of the year, the stock has lost about 30%.
Musk himself spoke of hell in the automotive supply chain, but he sent positive signals: commodity prices are falling and there is optimism about being able to reach high volumes in the remainder of the year.
The electric car house has also updated the situation on its crypto wallet. Tesla has in fact made it known that it has got rid of a large part of the Bitcoin share it had purchased in February 2021, thus giving a decisive boost to the virtual currency. At the end of the second quarter, “we converted about 75% of our bitcoins into fiat money,” Tesla said in the letter to shareholders. Operation that added $ 936 million in cash to the balance sheet. Initially, in February of last year, it had invested 1.5 billion and later, in April, it had sold 10% of its then share. Tesla said its digital assets dwindled to 218 million and that Bitcoin impairment on its balance sheet impacted second quarter profitability. Musk specified that the sale should not be understood as a judgment on Bitcoin, but it is a move to improve the cash given the uncertainties related to Covid and production. Nonetheless, after a day of hikes, the cryptocurrency queen took a hit at the news last night.