Tesla announced its quarterly figures in the night from Wednesday to Thursday. In the third quarter, the American manufacturer of all-electric cars posted a net profit of 331 million dollars (279 million euros). That is not only the fifth consecutive quarterly profit for Tesla, but also more than a doubling of the profit from the second quarter.
With the quarterly profit, Tesla is on track to turn a full year’s profit for the first time in its history. “This was the best quarter in our history,” said CEO Elon Musk at the release of the figures. The past period ended with sales of $ 8.77 billion, an increase of 39 percent compared to a year earlier.
Despite the corona crisis, Tesla still expects to be able to produce its target of 500,000 vehicles this year, an increase of about 36 percent from last year. “While this endeavor has now become more difficult, it remains our goal to deliver half a million vehicles this year,” the company said.
Tesla delivered a total of 318,350 new vehicles through September, which means it will have to ship 181,650 cars in the last quarter of this year to meet the target number. In the third quarter, the brand delivered a record number of 139,300 units.
Musk is counting on a further increase in production and deliveries for 2021 and does not rule out a number of somewhere between 840,000 and 1 million copies. For this, Tesla is dependent on a timely start of production at the new factory in Berlin. A new production center must also be opened in the US state of Texas. However, Musk does not expect that Tesla will be able to run at full speed at the new locations.
The Tesla CEO also emphasized on Wednesday that there will be an affordable Tesla with a base price of approximately $ 25,000 in the long term. In addition, the first copies of the Cybertruck may be delivered at the end of next year, after which production and deliveries will really start in 2022.