Tesla Actually Made Money

Tesla, the automaker that’s always lauded for its amazing success without actually generating money, turned a profit for the third quarter of this year. This has happened before, but not for a while, and this time the California company actually made more than a little bit of pocket change.

Thanks to the production push for the Model 3 over the summer, Tesla was able to rack up $312 million in profits for Q3. Of course, the big question is if Tesla will do this again in Q4, or if this is yet another fluke quarter.

Electric car advocates are wildly pointing to this news, loudly declaring that automakers should note that electric vehicles are profitable to make. That might be a gross oversimplification, but this development does fly in the face of overly harsh Tesla critics.

Of course, skeptics say this is only a temporary surge in Tesla’s books, something it won’t be able to repeat, at least not anytime soon.

The fact is Bloomberg estimates Tesla has pushed beyond the 100,000 mark for number of Model 3s produced. That’s an average of 4,419 per week, short of the goal set by Elon Musk. Still, it’s an impressive amount, and for now demand should continue strong throughout 2019. With the Model Y possibly coming soon, Tesla may finally cement its future by turning a profit every quarter, just like everyone else.