Tesla says Q1 net income, revenues surged

Tesla Inc. said net income and revenues surged after the EV maker delivered record units at higher prices.

The company led by Elon Musk posted first-quarter net income of $3.32 billion compared with a profit of $438 million a year earlier. Revenue rose to $18.76 billion from $10.39 billion a year earlier.

Tesla has been an outlier since the pandemic outbreak, posting record deliveries and earnings for several quarters when rivals wrestling with global supply chain snarls rolled out production halts.

Meanwhile, the company's two new factories in Texas and Berlin are ramping up production, with Musk delivering Tesla's first Texas-made Model Y vehicles earlier this month. The company started deliveries in Berlin in March.

However the automaker cautioned that production remains constrained by shortages of key components, a common refrain for automakers due to global bottlenecks on supplies of semiconductors and other parts.

“Our own factories have been running below capacity for several quarters as supply chain became the main limiting factor, which is likely to continue through the rest of 2022,” it said in a letter to shareholders.

A Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai forced its factory to halt output, crimping production in China. “Although limited production has recently restarted, we continue to monitor the situation closely,” Tesla said.

The global EV market leader delivered over 936,000 cars last year and reported deliveries of 310,048 vehicles worldwide in the first quarter. The company said it’s still projecting 50 percent annual growth rate even as those new factories come online.

Tesla continues to add to a growing war chest: It finished the first three months with $18 billion in cash and cash equivalents. It also continues to chip away at its debt load, carrying less than $100 million in debt at then end of the quarter, excluding financing for its vehicle and energy products.

The company's shares rose 5.05 percent after the bell. They had closed down 5 percent at $977.2 in regular trading on Wednesday.

Earnings per share and revenue exceeded Wall Street expectatons. Tesla reported earnings per share of $2.86 while analysts expected $2.26. Revenue exceeded Wall Street forecasts by about $1 billion.

Meanwhile a federal judge on Wednesday rejected an effort by Tesla Inc TSLA.O shareholders to obtain a "gag order" preventing Elon Musk from publicly discussing their lawsuit accusing him of deceiving them with a 2018 tweet about taking his electric car company private.

The ruling was issued by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco.

Reuters and Bloomberg contributed to this report.