Tesla made $100 million in one month of trading crypto, more than it ever made selling cars in 14 years

Back in February, Tesla announced it bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. In addition to the purchase, Tesla said it would start accepting payments in bitcoin in exchange for its products as well. Tesla’s crypto investment seems to have paid off.

This evening, Tesla reported its first-quarter result after the bell on Monday. During the quarter that just ended, Tesla recorded a $101 million positive impact from sales of bitcoin during the quarter, which’s more than the company ever made selling cars in 14 years (excluding regulatory credits).

Tesla said its operating income improved in Q1 compared to the same period last year to $594M, resulting in a 5.7% operating margin. However, its Quarter-end cash and cash equivalents decreased to $17.1B in Q1, driven mainly by a net cash outflow of $1.2B in cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) purchases, net debt, and finance lease repayments of $1.2B, partially offset by the free cash flow of $293M.

The electric car giant posted a record net income of $438 million for the quarter buoyed by sales of bitcoin and regulatory credits. Its revenue also surges by 74% but the stock dipped as much as 3% after hours as investors digested the numbers.

Below is a summary of Tesla’s quarterly earnings versus analyst estimates:

• Earnings: 93 cents per share vs. 79 cents per share expected
• Revenue: $10.39 billion vs. $10.29 billion expected, up 74% from a year ago

Credit: CNBC

As part of its quarterly report, Tesla also revealed that it has been able to reduce the average cost of producing Model 3 from approx. $84,000 in 2017 to sub-$38,000 per vehicle in Q1, 2021. Tesla said:

“While the ASP2 of our vehicles declined in Q1, our auto gross margin increased sequentially, as our costs decreased even faster. Reducing the average cost of the vehicles we produce is essential to our mission. In 2017, as we began production of Model 3, our average cost per vehicle across the fleet was ~$84,000. Due to the launch of new products and new factories and the reduced mix of Model S and Model X, our average cost declined to sub-$38,000 per vehicle in Q1.”