Tesla on Wednesday reported increases in revenue and profit for the third quarter, with CEO Elon Musk attending and making statements during the electric carmaker’s earnings call.
The company said it had about $21.45 billion in total quarterly revenue, up 26.8% from the second quarter and 55% from last year’s third quarter. Its profits, meanwhile, were $3.3 billion, a significant increase from the $1.6 billion reported during the same three-month period in 2021.
Telsa’s revenue came in lower than the $21.96 billion estimate from Refinitiv.
Automotive gross margin for the third quarter remained flat at 27.9% quarter-over-quarter but fell year-over-year, the company said. In the third quarter of 2021, its automotive gross margin was 30.5%.
Earlier in October, Tesla said its vehicle production for the quarter came in at over 365,000, and its deliveries were over 343,000. Both of those figures were up from the second quarter when the electric vehicle maker reported producing over 258,000 vehicles and delivering over 254,000.
Some challenges Tesla said it faced include cost inflation of raw materials, ramp inefficiencies at certain factories, logistics volatility, and supply chain issues.
“We’re looking forward to a record-breaking Q4,” Musk said during the earnings call. “Knock on wood, it looks like we’ll have an epic end of year.”
He said Tesla has “excellent demand” for the fourth quarter and expects to sell “every car that we make for as far as the future as we can see.”
Musk also offered his vision of Tesla’s potential future value, saying he thought the company could “far exceed” Apple’s current market capitalization.
“I see a potential path for Tesla to be worth more than Apple and Saudi Aramco combined,” Musk continued. “Now that doesn’t mean it will happen or that it’ll be easy. In fact, I think it will be very difficult and require a lot of work, some very creative new products, mass expansion and – always – luck.”
He cited the company’s product portfolio, including “some of which you’ve heard about, some of which you haven’t.”
Musk’s $44 billion bid to acquire Twitter also briefly came up during the call, with the Telsa CEO saying he was “excited about the Twitter situation.”
“I think it’s an asset that has sort of languished for a long time but has incredible potential,” he said. “Although obviously myself and the other investors are obviously overpaying for it right now, the long-term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value.”
