NEW: Tesla turned another quarterly profit, its seventh in a row, despite a delay with the new Model S and Model X.

It netted $438 million on $10.4 billion in revenue, though it sold $518 million (!) in regulatory credits, and another $101 million in BTC https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/26/22404198/tesla-q1-results-earnings-profit-model-s-x-y-3-bitcoin-delay

Tesla is about to start its conference call with investors. Elon Musk, CFO Zach Kirkhorn, and ‘a number of other Tesla executives’ are on the call. Will thread some highlights below.

“Q1 2021 was a record quarter on many levels” Musk says. “We've seen a real shift in customer perception of electric vehicles, and our demand is the best we've ever seen.” Points to how Q1 usually dips, but this time sales were up from Q4.

MUSK: “We think Model Y will be the best selling car or vehicle of any kind in the world.”

When? “Probably next year. I’m not 100 percent certain next year, but I think it’s quite likely.. more likely than not, that 2022 Model Y is best selling car or truck .. in the world.”

Musk says radar sensors has helped make up for some shortfalls but long run Tesla will only rely on cameras for its semi-automated (and one day, perhaps, fully automated) driving.

MUSK: “Q1 had some of the most difficult supply chain challenges that we've ever experienced in the life of Tesla.”

“Insane difficulties” across the whole range of parts used, he says.

MUSK: "There were more challenges than expected” on revamped Model S and Model X. “There’s just a lot of issues encountered.” Says a lot of work going into making sure battery is safe, but he’s also cutting out so we’re losing some of what he’s saying.

Model S production and deliveries starting “probably next month” Musk says, and Model X in Q3.

Tesla’s website currently says June for Model S and October for Model X.

Musk says Tesla aims to make 2,000 Model S and Model X per week, and says they cost Tesla less to build per car, which would mean big profit.

Both Kirkhorn and Musk said that Tesla began producing new Model S sedans in Q1 but Tesla said in its investor presentation that it made 0 of them...

Kirkhorn: We also invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin during the quarter, then trimmed our position by 10%, which contributed to a small gain in our q1 financials.

MUSK: "I think long term, people will think of Tesla as much as an AI / robotics company as we are a car company or an energy company."

MUSK on Tesla’s struggles with Solar Roof and price increases: “We've basically made some significant mistakes in in assessing the difficulty of certain roofs, but the complexity of roofs varies dramatically.”

MUSK: if existing roof has protuberances or problems w/ structure or is not strong enough to hold solar tiles, total cost can be 2/3x Tesla’s initial estimates.

Wild admissions here from Musk about the product he used to help sell Tesla/SolarCity merger https://twitter.com/sokane1/status/1386802623240679430

Tesla’s CFO on why they chose to buy Bitcoin: “Elon and I were looking for a place to store cash that wasn't being immediately used, trying to get some level of return on this, but also preserve liquidity.”

Question: "does Tesla have any plans to tackle mainstream media's massive and deceptive clickbait headline campaign”

Musk: “Really just extremely deceptive media practices.”

“Those journalists should be ashamed with themselves.”

NEW: Tesla VP Lars Moravy says Tesla found the steering wheel in the fatal crash in Texas was deformed, leading Tesla to believe someone was in the driver’s seat.

Federal safety investigators have been unhappy with Tesla in the past for front-running information like this https://twitter.com/sokane1/status/1386806147773083649