Tesla Inc. on Monday posted first-quarter net income of $438 million amid record global vehicle deliveries and favorable comparisons to 2020, when its operations were temporarily halted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The electric vehicle maker said revenue in the quarter jumped 74 percent to $10.4 billion, with automotive gross margins hitting 26.5 percent. The company was aided by $518 million in sales of regulatory credits to competitors — a 46 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.
Its net income was just $16 million in the first quarter of 2020.
Tesla more than doubled its deliveries to 184,877 from the year-earlier period, and officials said its new plant outside Austin, Texas, remained on track to start production by the end of 2021. The factory will produce the Cybertruck pickup and other models.
The automaker ended the quarter with 561 stores and service centers, 28 percent more than a year earlier.
Tesla said it expects to average 50 percent annual growth in vehicle deliveries moving forward but grow even faster than that this year.
“The rate of growth will depend on our equipment capacity, operational efficiency and capacity and stability of the supply chain,” the automaker said in a statement.
Despite the record deliveries, Tesla’s average selling price fell 13 percent year over year as it changed over to redesigned versions of its higher-priced Model S and Model X, which it said would go on sale “very shortly.” Tesla delivered just 2,030 Model S and Model X vehicles in the quarter compared with 182,847 of the Model 3 and Model Y.
Most of Tesla’s results exceeded Wall Street forecasts, but shares still fell 1.8 percent in after-hours trading to $724.70.