#Earnings Results: Tesla tops $1 billion in profit, delays Semi launch

Revenue rose 98% to $11.96 billion, from $6.04 billion a year ago, which the company pinned in part on “substantial growth” in vehicle sales.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected Tesla to report adjusted earnings of 94 cents a share on sales of $11.51 billion in the quarter. It marked the eighth GAAP, as well as adjusted, quarterly profit for the EV maker.

The chip shortage “remains quite serious,” Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a call after the results. “The chip supply is fundamentally the governing factor on our output,” and it’s hard to say how long it will last because it’s out of Tesla’s control, he said.

Tesla has used alternative chips, but that’s not just a matter of doing a swap, as new software then has to be rewritten, Musk said.

Besides the delay of the Semi launch, Musk and Tesla executives left vague the start of production of the Cybertruck, its much-awaited pickup, at the under-construction Austin, Texas, plant, saying only it would be later this year. Production of the vehicle was expected for early 2021, and the Tesla Semi has been delayed by a couple of years.

Musk also surprised Wall Street by saying he’d be unlikely to be on future Tesla earnings calls, “unless there’s something important I need to say,” he told analysts and others during the call.

Tesla said it remained on track to build its first Model Y compact SUV in factories going up in Berlin and Austin this year, with the pace of the production ramp “influenced by the successful introduction of many new product and manufacturing technologies, ongoing supply-chain related challenges and regional permitting,” Tesla said in a letter to investors Monday.

“To better focus on these factories, and due to the limited availability of battery cells and global supply chain challenges, we have shifted the launch of the Semi truck program to 2022,” it said.

From June: Tesla’s president of trucking Jerome Guillen leaves company

“Tesla’s numbers, beating estimates by a healthy margin, confirm strong global demand for EVs continues, enough to more than offset Tesla’s near-term challenges,” said iSeeCars.com analyst Karl Brauer.

Tesla’s operating income increased year-on-year mainly on volume growth and cost reductions, but those were offset in part by rising expenses, additional supply-chain costs, lower revenue from regulatory credits and a “bitcoin-related impairment of ($23 million),” the company said.

Supply-chain issues, including the global chip shortage and congestions in ports, continued to plague Tesla.

“With global vehicle demand at record levels, component supply will have a strong influence on the rate of our delivery growth for the rest of this year,” the company said.

Tesla kept its sales guidance for the year intact and nonspecific, saying that “over a multi-year horizon” it expects 50% average annual growth in vehicle sales, and sees 2021 as a year it could grow faster.

Tesla reported a mixed first quarter in April, beating Wall Street expectations for adjusted profit but missing the sales forecast by a hair, with the company beset by parts shortages and other snags.

Tesla shares have lost about 6% this year, and are holding on to gains of about 133% for the past 12 months. That compares with an advance of around 18% and 37% for the S&P 500 index
SPX,
+0.24%
in these same periods.