Tesla revenues grow 81% from last year

Tesla just reported first-quarter earnings for 2022 and beat analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom lines. Here are the key numbers.

• Earnings per share: $3.22 vs $2.26 expected
• Revenue: $18.76 billion vs $17.80 billion expected

Shares rose more than 5% in after-hours trading.

Automotive revenue reached $16.86 billion, up 87% from the same period last year. Automotive gross margins jumped to 32.9% with Tesla reporting gross profit of $5.54 billion in its main segment. Regulatory credits accounted for $679 million of automotive revenue for the quarter.

Revenue growth was driven in part by an increase in the number of cars Tesla delivered, and an increase in average sales prices, the company said in its shareholder deck.

Early this month, Tesla reported vehicle deliveries of 310,048 for the first quarter, the closest approximation of sales disclosed by the company. Model 3 and Model Y vehicles comprised 95%, or 295,324, of deliveries in the period ending March 31, 2022.

In its energy segment, Tesla’s solar deployments dropped by nearly half to 48 MW in the first quarter of 2022.

Wednesday’s earnings call comes amid news of CEO Elon Musk‘s hostile takeover bid for Twitter, the social media platform he has relied on to promote Tesla and his own public image for years.

Musk no longer leads or speaks on every Tesla earnings call. But ahead of Wednesday’s update, he said that he plans to be on the call, which starts at 5.30 p.m. ET.

Tesla recently opened two new factories outside of Berlin, Germany, and Austin, Texas, and the CEO appeared for both grand opening events.

Investments in these massive new facilities are part of Tesla’s effort to localize production and lower the cost and improve the speed of distributing vehicles from factories to customers in major markets throughout Asia and Europe.

This story is developing; please check back for updates.