Elon Musk, Tesla chief executive, said on Wednesday that a factory shutdown in China and severe supply chain pressures would put a further brake on the electric car maker’s headlong growth in the current quarter.
However, he stuck to bullish predictions for 2022 as a whole, while also claiming that a new, purpose-built robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals would reach production in 2024 and become a “massive driver of growth” for the company.
The comments came as Tesla revealed that it had withstood the worst of the auto industry’s supply chain crisis to generate revenue and earnings above most Wall Street forecasts in the first quarter of this year. The news lifted the company’s shares nearly 5 per cent in after-market trading, erasing a loss of the same magnitude earlier in the day.