Tesla beat analyst expectations and made a profit of $312 million in the last three months.
Despite the turbulent few months for the electric company, the group announced surprisingly high profits sending shares up 10% in after-hours trading.
Musk told analysts that it was an “incredibly historic quarter”.
“Customers actually cared about the future of the company so much that they volunteered their time to help the company succeed. It chokes me up, actually,” he said.
Over the past three months, when the group saw an increase in profits, Musk found himself in the headlines many times.
Musk is currently being sued by a British diver, who he called a “pedo”. He fined and sanctioned by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and also smoked cannabis live on a radio show.
Jeremy Acevedo, who is the manager of industry analysis at Edmunds, said: “The third quarter in many ways serves as Elon Musk’s redemption – you may not agree with his approach, but you can’t argue with the numbers.”
“Between the SEC battle, controversial interviews and Twitter feuds, Elon’s antics hit a zenith in the third quarter, yet Tesla managed to exceed production goals and the Model 3 outsold many of the most popular cars in America. Achieving profitability is a huge milestone, and one that even the most staunch Tesla skeptics would have to give them a little bit of kudos for,” he added.
The company has said that it expects to generate a profit during the fourth quarter. Tesla has had just two profitable quarters before Wednesday’s results.
Tesla said: “We will focus even further on cost improvements while continuing to increase our production rate” in the fourth quarter.
Shares in Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are currently trading -1.92% (1037GMT).
