Tesla reports revenues increase, net income decline in first quarter

US electric vehicle maker Tesla said Wednesday that it earned 23.3 billion US dollars in total revenues in the first quarter of fiscal 2023, up 24 percent over the previous year.

Tesla posted US$2.51 billion in GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net income attributable to common stockholders for the quarter that ended on March 31, representing a 24 percent decrease from the previous year.

In the first quarter, Tesla produced a record number of 440,808 vehicles and delivered over 422,000 vehicles. Its automotive quarterly revenue hit nearly US$19.9 billion, an 18 percent increase year over year.

The company reported US$2 billion in capital expenditures in the first quarter, a 17 percent increase from the same quarter last year.

Tesla reduced the price of its four electric vehicles in the United States, Europe, and China, which squeezed the automaker's traditionally robust automotive gross margins. Its operating margin fell to 11.4 percent from 19.2 percent in the first quarter of 2022.

Its cash and cash equivalents in the first quarter reached US$22.4 billion, up 24 percent year on year.

"Since the Shanghai factory has been successfully running near full capacity for several months, we do not expect a meaningful increase in weekly production run rate. We launched sales in Thailand, a new market supplied out of Shanghai. Giga Shanghai remains our main export hub," said Tesla.

"For 2023, we expect to remain ahead of the long-term 50 percent CAGR with around 1.8 million cars for the year," it forecast.