Tesla: 1st Profit in Years, Thanks to California Climate Credits – IOTW Report

Tesla: 1st Profit in Years, Thanks to California Climate Credits

Breitbart:

Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA:NASDAQ) reported this week that revenue nearly doubled in the latest quarter. The all-electric car company reported its first quarterly profit in over three years, thanks to cashing in $139 million of California tax credits that are meant to help combat climate change.

The company reported net income of $21.9 million, or 14 cents per share, for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, the first positive net earnings since the winter quarter of 2013. The profit came despite Wall Street analysts expecting a $0.56 loss. The profit compared to a loss of $229.9 million, or $1.78 per share, for the same quarter last year.

Total revenue more than doubled, to $2.3 billion, and the company’s capital spending came in dramatically below what analysts had expected as Tesla ramped up its infrastructure to begin producing its $35,000 mass-market Model 3 sedan.

Chief Executive Elon Musk stunned analysts on the company’s earnings call by commenting that despite moving from a production plan to produce 90,000 vehicles this year to 500,000 vehicles in 2018, the company’s current plan “does not require any capital raise for the Model 3 at all.”

Breitbart News reported in June that despite Tesla never meeting any of its unit production targets in the last five years, CEO Elon Musk told shareholders that through the magic of “physics-first-principles” he would revolutionize auto industry efficiency by “factors of 10 or even 100 times” to improve production profitability by 1,100 percent. Six weeks later, Tesla reported a nasty loss, and Musk was scorned by the financial press.

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13 Comments on Tesla: 1st Profit in Years, Thanks to California Climate Credits

  1. Technology that works, is attractive and economically competitive doesn’t have to be forced down people’s throats by the government,
    But that’s now the standard system for 2016 America.

  2. It would seem that any business or Tom, Dick, and Tesla can make money when their captive payee is the captive taxpayer! Must be the new gospel taught at business schools, ie., bill the taxpayer and become both successful and rich (or for a counter strategy go into politics)!

  3. The only reason Tesla is moving any cars is the tax credit the government gives for each car sold (and I think there’s one for each car manufactured as well) along with corporate tax credits and grants. The truth is that all of Musk’s operations depend almost solely on government purchases, tax credits or grants. If the government stopped the flow of money into SpaceX the company would fold in a matter of days. The same is for Solar City and Tesla. Musk is a hustler and quite the smooth talker and reminiscent of Burt Lancaster in The Rainmaker.

  4. @anonymous; It’s not hard to get a net worth that high when all your assets are paid for by the feds. The media love this guy and even when one of his rockets explode or one of his cars catches fire it’s treated like a big advance in the technology he’s shilling. The market is giving him most of the net worth as funds and investment banks are gambling big on the pipe dream future payoffs. It’s like Musk has created his own personal market bubble.

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