Tesla posted record deliveries in Q1 despite global chip shortage
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) narrowly beat analysts’ expectations for Q1 revenue the company revealed on Monday, as its environmental credit sales rose and it liquidated part of its bitcoin holding.
The electric vehicle manufacturer posted record deliveries in Q1 even though there was a global chip shortage. However, the company’s profit was not a result of its car sales.
Tesla invested $1.5bn in bitcoin, but then sold around 10% of it off during Q1. The company’s proceeds from the sale came in at $272, with a $101m “positive impact”.
“We do believe long term in the value of bitcoin,” said chief financial officer Zachary Kirkhorn. “It is our intent to hold what we have long term and continue to accumulate bitcoin from transactions from our customers as they purchase vehicles.”
Tesla has now made a profit for seven consecutive quarters, mostly down to their environmental credits.
Tesla earned $518m from sales of those credits, up 46% from a year before. Tesla earns credits for surpassing its emissions and fuel economy standards and sells them to other companies that fall short.
“Higher regulatory credits, lower taxes, and bitcoin sales buoyed financial results. Back these out, and it was a large miss,” Roth Capital Partners analyst Craig Irwin said.
Tesla said it managed to find its way through the global chip shortage by adapting to using new chips, which included developing new software.
Musk said it had “some of the most difficult supply chain challenges,” citing a chip shortage. “We’re mostly out of that particular problem,” he said.
The average price of its vehicles fell by 13% as production of the more expensive S and X models stopped ahead of major updates.
Its average cost per vehicle is now below $38,000 in Q1, compared with $84,000 in 2017.
Revenue rose to $10.39 billion from $5.99 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected revenue of $10.29 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
