Tesla released its third quarter earnings after Wednesday’s market close. The Silicon Valley automaker and energy company said it took in $2.30 billion in revenue, up 145% from Q3 a year ago. This marks the first time the company has reported a profit on a GAAP basis, earning $111 million, or $0.71 per share on a diluted basis. Q3 GAAP net income came in at $22 million, or $0.14 per share.
The company also reported capital expenditure of $247.6 million in the third quarter which bested analyst estimates of $763 million in CapEx.
Deliveries on track
The shareholder letter also revealed that Tesla is on track to meet its guidance of 50,000 deliveries during the second half of 2016. The company had previously reported deliveries of 24,500 vehicles in Q3 and expects to deliver slightly over 25,000 more vehicles in the next quarter, maintaining their guidance of 50,000 new vehicle deliveries for the second half of 2016, and ending the full-year between 80-90,000 vehicles delivered. Tesla indicated that roughly a third of the deliveries – 30% to 35% – will be leases.
Model X
Tesla also continues to ramp up production of its Model X, indicating that the tech-laden electric SUV is growing to 6% of the U.S. large luxury SUV market in Q3, beating out models from Porsche, Land Rover and Infiniti within the same category. “The large luxury SUV category is three times the size of the large luxury sedan category in the U.S., and represents a huge opportunity to further increase Model X sales.”, reports Tesla.
Gigafactory
Battery cell production for Tesla Energy storage products will begin by end of year at the Gigafactory. The shareholder letter also indicated that the Sparks, Nevada-based battery plant will begin supporting volume production and deliveries of Model 3 towards the second half of 2017.
Tesla (TSLA) shares were trading up over 5% following the release of Tesla’s Q3 report to shareholders.
