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Palo Alto (dpa) - The US electric car manufacturer Tesla posted further strong growth at the beginning of the year and achieved its highest quarterly profit to date.
In the three months to the end of March, the company earned a bottom line of 438 million dollars (362 million euros), as it announced after the US market closed.
A year ago, the balance sheet had shown only a slight increase of 16 million dollars.
The construction of the first European Tesla factory in Grünheide near Berlin is progressing - but apparently not quite as quickly as hoped.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk's company is already in the black for the seventh quarter in a row in the first quarter.
An important factor, however, is once again trading in emissions certificates, which other car manufacturers need to improve their emissions balance and thus meet legal requirements in California or Europe, for example.
In the first quarter, Tesla turned over $ 518 million.
The balance sheet is also benefiting from a multi-billion dollar investment in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin that hit the headlines in February.
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Revenues rise 74 percent to $ 10.4 billion. Although the figures are in line with market expectations, the share is clearly in the red after the trading hours. Tesla delivered 184,877 e-cars in the first quarter - more than doubling compared to the previous year and a new record in the history of the company founded in 2003. Demand was particularly high in China, even if Tesla faced complaints from customers here. Most recently there was even a scandal caused by a protest at the Shanghai auto show, which put Tesla under further pressure.
Despite the criticism in the most important foreign market and increasing competition from established car manufacturers such as Volkswagen or General Motors, who are penetrating the electrical segment, Tesla confirms its growth targets for the current year. The company continues to anticipate an increase in global deliveries of around 50 percent. In 2020, Tesla brought over half a million e-cars to customers. The construction and start of operation of new car factories in Grünheide near the German capital Berlin and in the US state of Texas should further accelerate growth this year.
In Germany, however, there were recently disagreements at the bureaucratic level, so the final environmental approval for the plant by the state of Brandenburg is still pending.
Tesla's annual report now states that the project is on track to begin production and deliveries in late 2021.
This indicates delays, so far it had always been said from industry circles that the tapes should start in the middle of the year.
A spokesman for Tesla in Germany had stressed to the last that the original schedule was still in place.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210427-99-365084 / 5