DETROIT (AP) — Record electric vehicle sales in the fourth quarter helped to push Tesla Inc. to its second-straight quarterly profit, giving bullish investors optimism that sustained black ink lies ahead.
The Palo Alto, California, company said it made a net profit of $105 million from October through December, or 58 cents per share but still posted an annual loss of $862 million.
The fourth-quarter earnings almost certainly will continue Tesla’s meteoric stock appreciation. Shares rose about 12 % in after-hours trading Wednesday to $648.
The company said in its quarterly investor letter that it expects to “comfortably” exceed production of 500,000 vehicles at its factories in Fremont, California, and Shanghai.
It expects net profits going forward, with possible some possible exceptions at times surrounding the launch of new products.
“We continue to believe our business has grown to the point of being self-funding,” the investor letter said.
Tesla said the production ramp-up of the Model Y SUV, a key product for the company, has started ahead of schedule in Fremont. Model Y production in Shanghai will start in 2021. The company also said it plans to start producing limited numbers of its electric semi truck this year.
Tesla shares have more than tripled in value since May of last year, pushing the company’s market value above giant German automaker Volkswagen as well as the combined values of General Motors and Ford.
The electric vehicle and solar panel maker's fourth-quarter revenue grew 2% to $7.38 billion as Tesla delivered about 112,000 vehicles during the period and a record 367,500 for the full year.
Fourth-quarter revenue figures beat Wall Street estimates of $6.99 billion, but net income fell short of the $152.4 million expected by analysts polled by FactSet.
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A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
