Tesla Posts Huge Profits After Selling Nearly $1 Billion In Bitcoin

Tesla's quarterly profits are in. The results? Higher than average in part thanks to a string of price hikes for cars like the Tesla Model 3, Y, S, and others. This was to help offset production shortcomings after the most recent slew of COVID-related lockdowns in China, where one of Tesla's largest Gigafactories resides.

Tesla said in a statement on Wednesday that it was "focused on a record-breaking second half of 2022," per Automotive News. Tesla raised the price of the Model 3's trim levels by $3,500 for the Long Range and $4,000 for the track-ready Performance model.

Profits are up $2.26 billion but total revenue for Tesla has fallen. This quarter, the company posted $16.93 billion compared to $18.76 billion just last quarter. That nearly $1.7 billion shift also ended Tesla's streak of posting record profit margins. Musk has been thoroughly vocal on Twitter regarding his fear of an upcoming recession. The billionaire has even gone so far as to call a recession "inevitable."

Tesla's adjusted profits are up to $2.27 per share, but its automotive gross margin fell down to 27.9%, down from not only last year, but last quarter as well. Tesla has said once again that it is the company's goal to achieve 50% average annual growth in vehicle delivery over a multi-year period.

Most notably, however, is Tesla's stance on Bitcoin. Tesla converted roughly 75% of its Bitcoin into US currency, a sum total of $936 million in liquidity now added to the company ledger for Q3. Musk had previously championed both Bitcoin and Dogecoin as solid investments on Twitter, though Musk maintains he personally has not sold any of the latter. The sell-off came after Elon said in May that Tesla would not be selling any Bitcoin. Year-to-date, Bitcoin is down almost 52%.

Musk previously said that his pricing hikes would slow down when inflation does. He and the company claim that the rise in prices are there to justify higher costs in battery materials, as well as aluminum, which Tesla uses for its body panels across the model range. However, there is still a pending lawsuit for the company's mass layoffs, as well as looming investigations into the brand's price Full Self-Drive tech.