
Tesla reported a record net income of over $1 billion in (GAAP) during the Q2 first time in the company’s history.
The company reported $1.14 billion in (GAAP) net income for the quarter, or $1.02 a share, the first time it has surpassed $1 billion. It was far more than double the $438 million it made in the first quarter, and more than 10 times the net income it reported a year ago.
Revenue rose 98% to $11.96 billion, from $6.04 billion a year ago, which the company pinned in part on substantial growth in vehicle sales.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk did acknowledge that the company’s growth has been hampered by the computer chip shortage hitting all other automakers and many other manufacturers.
“Supply chain challenges, in particular global semiconductor shortages and port congestion, continued to be present in Q2,” according to Tesla’s shareholder update on Monday. “The Tesla team, including supply chain, software development and our factories, worked extremely hard to keep production running as close to full capacity as possible. With global vehicle demand at record levels, component supply will have a strong influence on the rate of our delivery growth for the rest of this year.”
During Tesla’s second quarter earnings call, CEO Elon Musk added that “the global chip shortage situation remains quite serious.”
“For the rest of this year, our growth rates will be determined by the slowest part in our supply chain, which is – there are a wide range of chips that are, at various times, the slowest parts of the supply chain,” he added.
Despite these issues, Tesla had reported deliveries of 201,250 electric vehicles, and production of 206,421 total vehicles, during the quarter ended June 30, 2021. Tesla also stuck to its previous guidance around its delivery forecast, saying it expected to achieve 50% average annual growth in deliveries over a multi-year period.
Tesla’s earnings release also came with updates around the company’s forthcoming factories in Berlin and Austin, Texas. Tesla repeated its earlier guidance that it expects to complete construction of factories near Austin, Texas, and in Berlin and start limited production of the Model Y SUV at those plants later this year.
Tesla said Monday that it won’t start production of its Cybertruck pickup until after the Model Y is up and running in Texas. And it pushed back the plans for a semi-tractor truck until 2022 “due to the limited availability of battery cells and global supply chain challenges.”
“Cybertruck and Semi, actually both are heavy users of battery cell capacity,” said Musk. “So we’ve got to make sure we have the cell capacity for those two vehicles. We are looking at a pretty massive increase in cell availability next year.” But he said that increase won’t all be available at the start of 2022 but will “ramp up through the course of next year.”
The company also reported $801 million in revenue from its energy business, including solar photovoltaics and energy storage systems for homes, businesses and utilities, an increase of more than 60% from last quarter.