Tesla Beats Quarterly Revenue Estimates

Tesla, the world’s most valuable automaker, has defied the pandemic and the global supply-chain crisis, posting record revenue for the fifth consecutive quarter in the July to September period, fueled by a production ramp-up at its Chinese factory.

Led by billionaire Elon Musk, Tesla faces challenges of maintaining its growth in the face of a prolonged chip shortage, with its factories starting production in Berlin and Texas this year.

Tesla shares, up about 23% this year, fell about 1% in extended trade.

Revenue rose to $13.76 billion from $8.77 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected revenue of about $13.63 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Tesla’s automotive gross margin, excluding environmental credits, rose to 28.8%, from 25.8% the previous quarter, despite cost pressure from supply-chain issues.

“A variety of challenges, including semiconductor shortages, congestion at ports and rolling blackouts, have been impacting our ability to keep factories running at full speed,” Tesla said.

“We continue to run our production lines as close to full capacity as conditions allow. While sequential growth remains our goal, the magnitude of growth will be determined largely by outside factors,” Tesla said.

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(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Editing by Maju Samuel and Matthew Lewis)