Tesla has released its financial results for the first quarter of 2020, announcing it generated $5.985 billion in revenue and earned $16 million.
This represents Tesla’s third consecutive quarter of profitability and comes despite the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Key factors in Tesla’s somewhat-fruitful Q1 was improved automotive margins and reductions in operating expenses.
More specifically, Tesla cut operating expenses by 13 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2019, Tech Crunch reports. It also cashed in more regulatory credits in the first quarter than it had in more than a year. The company’s automotive gross margins also grew 25.5 per cent in the first quarter compared to the same time period in 2019.
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Given the current state of the world, it’s no surprise that Tesla’s revenue of $5.985 billion is down 19 per cent from the $7.38 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019. However, revenue in Q1 2020 was 32 per cent higher than the $4.5 billion it generated at this time last year.
Helping the growth of Tesla this year is the fact that this is the first full quarter its Gigafactory in Shanghai has been at volume production. It is also the first quarter the automaker began producing and delivering the Model Y, a vehicle which Elon Musk predicts will out-sell the Model 3, Model S, and Model X combined.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows at Tesla. Several Bay Area counties recently extended stay-at-home orders through the end of May, meaning the automaker’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California and its main factory in Fremont are subject to the order.
