Tesla profits soar as customers pay more

Tesla has been raising prices – but that hasn’t seemed to dent demand for its electric cars.

Despite the firm facing higher costs, profits at Elon Musk’s electric car company soared to $3.3bn (£2.5bn) in the first three months of the year, as customers proved willing to pay more.

The firm’s deliveries were up 68% – and would have been higher if not for supply chain shortages, the firm said.

Its Shanghai factory was also recently forced shut due to Covid restrictions.

As the plant reopens this month, staff will be required to sleep at the factory in an effort to avoid further lockdowns, Bloomberg has reported.

“Although limited production has recently restarted, we continue to monitor the situation closely,” Tesla said as it shared quarterly results with investors.

Tesla has been pushing to expand, opening new factories in Texas and Germany in recent weeks.

The firm delivered more than 310,000 cars in the first three months of the year and in a conference call with investors, chief executive Elon Musk predicted the company would produce 1.5 million cars during the year as a whole.

Revenues jumped 81% in the first three months of the year to $18.7bn.

Shares rose more than 4% in after-hours trade.

The dizzying ascent of Tesla stock in recent years has made chief executive Elon Musk the world’s richest man, with a reported net worth of more than $260bn.

That is nearly $100bn more than his closest rival, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Musk, known for his sometimes erratic musings on Twitter, recently put in an unsolicited offer to buy the social media firm for $43bn.