Tesla built 305,000 vehicles in the first quarter of this year, delivered 310,000 of them, posted $3.3 billion in net income, and opened two new factories — in Berlin and Austin — all while CEO Elon Musk sought a highly publicized hostile takeover of Twitter.
Tesla’s recent factory investments, as well as efforts to shore up its battery component supply chain, are part of the company’s localization strategy, which seeks to lower production costs by building vehicles closer to the markets they’ll eventually be sold in. But like the rest of the automotive industry, Tesla faces an increasingly tight supply of critical semiconductors and rising prices spurred by inflation itself brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It also is currently navigating the shuttering of its Gigafactory in Shanghai, which closed due to COVID outbreaks in the region. Work at the factory has only partially resumed in recent days.
At the opening of the Austin Gigafactory earlier this month, Musk confirmed that the long-awaited Cybertruck would finally be going on sale in 2023 and that a wide beta of its Full Self-Driving technology would be rolling out throughout North America this year. Q1 2022 also saw price increases across Tesla’s model lineup and the elimination of gratis mobile charging equipment.
Tesla will hold its quarterly investor teleconference at 5:30pm ET today, stay tuned for updates from that call along with whatever fun tidbits fall out of Elon’s head during it.
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