Tesla sold enough cars and energy products that it could turn a profit, even without considering the sale of emissions credits for other automakers. This was a significant milestone for the company. It was Tesla's eighth quarter of profit, but it was its first quarter where it can say that it is a profitable automaker.Tesla announced Monday that it had posted a $1.1billion profit for the second quarter 2021. Credit sales accounted for $354 million. The remainder came from auto sales and an increase in energy storage sales.Tesla achieved this feat despite taking a $23 million loss on its Bitcoin bet (something that had helped the company to a profit last year), a delayed rollout for the Model S sedan, and Model X SUV, as well as the global semiconductor shortage. In total, Tesla generated $11.9billion in revenue for the quarter.Tesla's Model 3 sedan and Model Y small SUV dominated sales, proving that electric cars are affordable. Tesla sold more than 200,000 Model 3s, Model Ys, and 1,895 Model S sedans during the quarter.The Model Y's initial success was enough to give Tesla a boost. However, it is difficult to quantify the impact of that boost since Tesla doesn't break down sales by model. China is the same. Although Tesla does not break down sales by country, it has been delivering local-made cars from its Shanghai factory for over a year and that has allowed the company to continue growing its business. Tesla stated Monday that its primary vehicle export hub is China's factory.Tesla will be able to produce more vehicles in the Texas and Germany factories it is building. The latter was slow to build due to environmental violations and red tape. However, Tesla's Texas factory is almost as fast as its Chinese counterpart. These factories not only lower the price of cars sold in a region but also compensate for Tesla's California factory which has been operating at its limits for quite some time.Tesla has been able to enter the black because of its scale in becoming a global automaker, even without regulatory credits. Tesla had to prove that it could do this considering that the automakers to whom these credits were sold for years are now producing electric cars and don't need regulatory offsets.However, growing the automotive business on a global scale has been at the cost of other projects. Tesla announced Monday that it had delayed once more the launch of its Semi truck until 2022. Tesla claims that the vehicle can be produced in its current form, but that production would reduce the availability of 4680 batteries for the Cybertruck and Model Y which will be made in Texas.Tesla also provided an update on the development and production of the 4680 cell. This was made public last year at the Battery Day event. Tesla stated that although significant progress has been made, there are still many steps to be taken before the cells can be mass produced. This includes refining the manufacturing process. However, the company claimed that it had successfully crashed-tested its new design for its vehicles, where the cells will be integrated into the structural frame.The Development of...
