Tesla reports $2 billion Q4 profit, sales up 65%, but production hemmed in by supply-chain snags
Tesla Inc. stock fell late Wednesday after the electric-vehicle maker reported quarterly profit and sales well above Wall Street expectations but said its factories have been running below capacity for several months thanks to supply-chain snags, limiting its production.
Tesla TSLA,
Sales rose 65% to $17.7 billion from $10.7 billion a year ago.
Wall Street analysts surveyed by FactSet expected the electric-car maker to report adjusted earnings of $2.36 a share on sales of $17.1 billion.
“Our own factories have been running below capacity for several quarters as supply chain became the main limiting factor, which is likely to continue through 2022,” the company said in a letter to investors.
“We aim to increase our production as quickly as we can, not only through ramping
production at new factories in Austin and Berlin, but also by maximizing output from our established factories in Fremont and Shanghai.”
The company has scheduled a conference call with analysts at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Chief Executive Elon Musk has signaled he’d be at the call.
The top executive said last year he’d not be on the quarterly earnings calls “unless there’s something important I need to say,” and he was not on the EV maker’s third-quarter call in October.
The CEO tweeted in late November he’d provide “an updated product road map” on the fourth-quarter call, prefacing that by calling 2021 the year of “a supply chain nightmare & it’s not over!”
There have been reports the Cybertruck, an unconventional-looking electric pickup truck unveiled in 2019, has been delayed.
Tesla surprised Wall Street earlier this month with record fourth-quarter sales, which surged nearly 90% from the same period in 2020.
