US-based electric car maker Tesla's latest results have surged past Wall Street expectations, leading to shares jumping by more than 5% after the close of regular trading.
Chief executive Elon Musk, already the world's richest man, will also be adding to his massive wealth as a result of this performance.
Reuters says that Tesla's strong quarterly report allowed Mr Musk to meet a hat-trick of performance goals worth a combined £17billion in new compensation. He receives no salary and his pay package requires Tesla's market capitalisation and financial growth to hit a series of escalating targets.
The firm's most-recent deliveries were up 68% - and would have been higher if not for supply-chain shortages, according to Tesla.
Its Shanghai factory was also recently forced shut due to Covid restrictions. As the plant reopens this month, staff will be required to sleep at the factory in an effort to avoid further lockdowns, it has been claimed.
Mr Musk said Tesla has a reasonable shot at achieving 60% vehicle delivery growth this year and remains confident of seeing 50% annual delivery growth for several years.
Tesla raised prices in China, the US and other countries, after Mr Musk said in March the business was facing significant inflationary pressure in raw materials and logistics amid the crisis in Ukraine.
The price increases are designed to cover higher costs for the next six to 12 months, which protects Tesla on orders for cars that it may not deliver for a year.
Craig Irwin, of Roth Capital, told Reuters: "Price increases are nicely exceeding cost inflation. Chinese production issues seem well managed, and we expect Austin and Berlin to make up the slack from Shanghai's 19-day outage."
The world's most valuable automaker said revenue was £14.4billion in the first quarter ended March 31, versus estimates of £13.6billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. This is up 81% from a year earlier.
Tesla's pre-tax profits per vehicle delivered rose by more than 60% to £12,415 in the latest quarter compared with a year earlier.
On an investor conference call, Mr Musk said Tesla expects to mass produce a robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedal by 2024.
But the CEO did not mention Twitter, which he offered to buy last week for nearly £33billion.
Investors are concerned that he may sell some Tesla stocks or borrow against additional Tesla shares to finance his bid. They also worry about Mr Musk being distracted by his move for the social media platform at a time when Tesla is ramping up production at new factories in Berlin and Texas.
"Factory ramps take time, and Gigafactory Austin and Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg will be no different," Tesla said in a statement.
The new facilities will be key to meeting demand and reducing reliance on its China factory, its biggest one.
FTSE 100
Meanwhile, the Brent crude futures price was up 0.96% earlier today at $107.75 a barrel.
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was up marginally at 7,629, after jumping by 27 points on Wednesday.
Companies reporting today
- First-quarter results: Snap
- First-quarter production statement: Anglo American
- Trading statements: AJ Bell, Man Group, Meggitt, Nestle, Relx, Rentokil Initial, Segro