Tesla records profit

 Tesla records profit

The electric-car company has tripled its profit in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the same period a year earlier, easily beating Wall Street's forecast.

Tesla yesterday announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2021 showing a profit of $ 2.9 billion, up sharply from $ 903 million in the same period a year ago. This figure also exceeded the $2.6 billion forecast by analysts in a Refinitiv survey. Revenue reached $17.7 billion, up 65%.

The above results pulled full-year profit to $ 7.6 billion. Revenue also increased to 53.8 billion USD.

A Tesla Model S at the showroom. Photo: Reuters

A Tesla Model S at the showroom. Photo: Reuters

CEO Elon Musk yesterday said Tesla is suspending plans for new products, due to supply chain problems. "We're not going to launch a new car this year," Musk said. "We're still ready for production, hopefully next year."

Tesla previously mentioned a variety of vehicles that are about to ship, such as a Cybertruck pickup truck, a tractor-trailer, a Tesla Roadster, and a vehicle that costs only $ 25,000 - cheaper than its current vehicles.

Bringing a new product to market in 2021 "requires a lot of focus and resources," Musk said, "this year too." He confirmed the company was solving "many supply chain challenges", but did not give details. "The chip shortage has improved over last year, but it's still a problem," Musk said.

Last year, Tesla sold 936,000 units, nearly double the 500,000 units it sold in 2020. "As chip shortages remain a major barrier to the global auto industry, Tesla's impressive profits reflect demand for vehicles. Electricity is increasing. This will help Tesla's 2022 outlook continue to be optimistic," said Dan Ives, technology analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Tesla will increase production at plants in California, Shanghai, Texas and Berlin. "We believe in the ability to increase existing capacity with our California plant to over 600,000 units per year," the company said.

Tesla shares rose slightly yesterday by 2%. The code is down 11.3% this year.