Tesla Inc.’s quarterly profit soared to record levels as the car maker largely evaded the effects of a global chip shortage that has constricted the global auto industry.
The company on Monday reported revenue of roughly $12 billion for the period ended June 30, nearly double the year-ago period, and a profit of $1.1 billion, its eighth sequential quarter in the black. Wall Street expected Tesla to report roughly $11.4 billion in revenue and around $600 million in profit, according to analysts surveyed by FactSet.
The Silicon Valley electric-car maker produced more than 206,000 vehicles in the second quarter, more than doubling its output from the year-ago quarter, when the rise of the Covid-19 pandemic limited production and consumer purchasing.
Global auto sales have cooled somewhat during 2021 amid a shortfall of semiconductors. Many auto makers, including Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. , have been forced to idle assembly plants over supply constraints, squeezing vehicle inventories and pushing up prices.
“Our biggest challenge is supply chain, especially microcontroller chips. Never seen anything like it,” Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said in June. “Fear of running out is causing every company to overorder—like the toilet-paper shortage, but at epic scale.”
