Tesla profits have jumped on the back of price hikes across its range despite encountering production issues.
Second quarter results published by the electric car manufacturer reveal that net income jumped to $2.26 billion compared with $1.14 billion in the second quarter of 2021. Tesla’s operating income also improved to $2.5 billion in the second quarter, resulting in a 14.6 per cent operating margin.
Tesla ended the quarter with $18.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities, an increase of $902 million over the previous quarter. The company also revealed that as of the end of Q2, it had converted approximately 75 per cent of its Bitcoin purchases into fiat currency, adding $936 million of cash to its balance sheet.
“We continued to make significant progress across the business during the second quarter of 2022,” the carmaker said. “Though we faced certain challenges, including limited production and shutdowns in Shanghai for the majority of the quarter, we achieved an operating margin among the highest in the industry of 14.6%, positive free cash flow of $621M and ended the quarter with the highest vehicle production month in our history.”
While Tesla may have ended the quarter strongly, total Q2 production topped out at 258,580 units, down from the 305,407 vehicles produced in the first quarter and the 305,840 that were built in the fourth quarter of 2021. Total deliveries also dropped from 310,048 in Q1 2022 to 254,695 in Q2 2022.
Tesla reiterated its ambitions growth plans in its investor relations statements.
“We plan to grow our manufacturing capacity as quickly as possible,” the company said. “Over a multi-year horizon, we expect to achieve 50% average annual growth in vehicle deliveries. The rate of growth will depend on our equipment capacity, factory uptime, operational efficiency and the capacity and stability of the supply chain.”
