Elon Musk Reminisces How Tesla Achieved Its First Quarterly Profit 11 Years Ago: '...A Case Of Deliver Or Die'

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk on Sunday reminisced about the first quarter of 2013 when the EV company made its first profit.

What Happened: The EV maker was out of cash during the quarter, making it necessary to deliver cars to avoid an impending bankruptcy, Musk said.

“We redirected everyone who wasn't building cars to delivering cars – legal, finance, HR, designers, everyone,” Musk said on X.

“I personally delivered many cars. Tesla was out of cash, so it was a case of deliver or die. The team delivered.”

The CEO was responding to a segment of a BBC interview with Tesla’s former VP of sales George Blankenship. Blankenship said that the company was looking to deliver 4,750 cars in the first quarter of 2013 despite having delivered just 12 cars a few quarters ago. “It was the toughest month I ever worked,” Blankenship said while turning emotional and noting that it was “really a tough time.”

The company eventually managed to deliver the 4750th car on the Saturday of the last week of the quarter at 3 o’clock, Blankenship recollected. “We made $11 million that quarter. It put us over the hump. Stock went from $20 to $90 and Tesla became a viable company,” he said. Blankenship left the company later that year.

Tesla’s Q1 2013 Results: “Tesla reached profitability in the first quarter of 2013 for the first time in our ten-year history,” Musk wrote in the opening of his Q1 2023 letter to shareholders. The company delivered over 4,900 cars and made over 5000 units of the Model S- the only vehicle in production then.

However, despite turning a quarterly profit in Q1 2023, Tesla turned a full-year profit only in 2020 as net losses began to rise in 2014.

Fast Forward To Q1 2024: For the last quarter, Tesla reported total revenue of $21.3 billion, marking a 9% drop from the corresponding quarter a year ago, owing to lower deliveries and an intense price war in the EV market. The company also made a net income of $1.13 billion.

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