Tesla posted record profits on Monday based on its third record quarter in a row — as its adjusted earnings reached the $1 billion mark for the first time.
The company recorded $9 billion in total revenue. That was slightly lower than fourth quarter sales but up 75% from the year-earlier period.
Revenue was partly held back as it stopped building its two most expensive models, the Model S and Model X, during the quarter, as it prepared to roll out new versions of those vehicles and dealt with a shortage of computer chips that has dogged the entire auto industry.
But Tesla said it weathered the chip shortage "in part by pivoting extremely quickly to new microcontrollers, while simultaneously developing firmware for new chips made by new suppliers." But CEO Elon Musk told investors later Monday that the chip shortage was "a huge problem" for Tesla, and that the company "had some of the most difficult supply chain challenges that we've ever experienced."
It said its deliveries of the new Model S "should start very shortly." But that was the same prediction made when it reported fourth-quarter results three months ago. Musk again seemed more cautious than the company's earnings statement, saying that it had experienced "just a lot of issues" with the new Model S and Model X. He said deliveries of the Model S would resume deliveries "probably next month," and that volume deliveries of the two cars would not resume until the third quarter.
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