Third Quarter for Tesla is Best Ever Says Elon Musk

Elon Musk is Tesla Inc. Chief Executive. He called the electric-car maker’s third-quarter its best. Nevertheless, it is not selling its cars for a profit while dropping its prices.

Tesla reported a fifth consecutive quarter of profits. Nevertheless, at the same time during the fourth consecutive quarter for the company was not profitable without regulatory credit sales. In the third quarter, in regulatory credits, Tesla was buoyed by $397 million. It helped paper over the effects of a massive stock bonus for Musk. It produced $331 million in profit.

Garret Nelson works for CFRA. He is an analyst there. Nelson said in a brief note to clients that once again, autoregulatory credit revenue was another primary driver of the beat.

Usually, Tesla sells regulatory credits to other automakers. That automakers are those who fail to manufacture enough ‘green’ cars to meet federal standards. So, they sold a lot of them this year. With their hundred percent profit margins, Tesla has collected $1.18 billion in credit sales through the past nine months. It is more than double what it booked in all of 2019.

Tesla

Of course, we do not how for how long Tesla will be such a hot ticket for those credits. Nevertheless, there is a development of rival electric cars. So, it means soon might fewer customers as large automakers and startups start collecting their credits. Tesla disclosed in its most recent 10Q filing that it had earned various tradable automotive regulatory credits and it will continue to accumulate. Tesla said that they had sold those credits. And they will continue in the future to sell credits. Furthermore, Tesla added that they are selling credits to automotive companies and other regulated entities who can use the credits for complying with emission standards and other regulatory requirements.

Zachary Kirkhorn is Tesla’s, Chief Financial Officer. He talked with analysts, in its conference call last quarter. Kirkhorn said that the regulatory credit revenue of the company in 2020 would roughly double that of 2019. The regulatory credits of Tesla have totaled $1.179 billion, already in the first nine months of this year. For the full year of 2019, Tesla earned $579 million. Already, the company has hit the guidance of Kirkhorn on credit revenue. Thus, for the fourth quarter, they added another element of possible uncertainty.

Musk might sell more cars at higher prices to generate more cash. Nevertheless, it seems Musk is determined not to. On Wednesday, Musk discussed bringing prices down overall.

That is the situation with Tesla.