A Tesla Model 3 sedan is displayed during an auto expo in Beijing. (Photo provided to China Daily)
U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc Wednesday said it posted a net loss of $408 million for the second quarter of 2019, despite a record delivery of e-vehicles to customers.
The revenue deficit, which includes $117 million of restructuring and other charges, represents a loss of $2.31 per share, compared to the loss of $3.06 in the same period of 2018, according to the company's Q2 financial results released on Wednesday.
Tesla generated $6.35 billion in revenue for the second quarter, slightly below the market forecast of $6.41 billion.
The company said it finished the quarter with $5 billion in cash and cash equivalents, the highest in Tesla's history to date.
Tesla said it achieved record deliveries of 95,356 vehicles and record production of 87,048 vehicles for the second quarter, surpassing the records of the previous quarter's 91,000 deliveries.
The growth in deliveries enabled the company to generate $614 million of free cash flow in the second quarter.
Tesla maintained a production rate of 7,000 Model 3 vehicles per week in the second quarter, when its Model 3 deliveries reached an all-time high of 77,634 units.
Tesla's Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai, China, is making significant progress in the second quarter as the company began to move machinery into the facility for the first phase of production.
The U.S. electric car maker aimed to achieve a capacity of 150,000 units per year in the Gigafactory 3 plant to produce the second-generation of Model 3 vehicles that are more cost-effective. The Shanghai plant will host the production of both Model 3 and Model Y cars.
Tesla disclosed that it still hopes to start production in China by the end of this year.
Tesla said the China market is posing a strong long-term opportunity for it as Chinese consumers bought well over a half million mid-sized premium sedans in 2019.
"Depending on the timing of the Gigafactory Shanghai ramp, we continue to target production of over 500,000 vehicles globally in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2020," Tesla said.
