Tesla just turned a profit for the first time since 2016

Elon Musk recently promised that Tesla will be profitable "every quarter, from here on out." So far, he's not wrong.

The electric car company turned a $312 million profit in 2018's third quarter, it revealed in an earnings report Wednesday. Tesla has previously only profited in two other quarters, and this rare move drove shares up 10 percent on Wednesday afternoon, reports The Washington Post.

This surprising profit follows a wild ride for Musk, who recently faced a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit and had to resign as Tesla chairman. But Musk's promise of "Teslaquila" isn't what turned things around. It was likely that Tesla doubled production of its popular Model 3 Sedan and pulled a profit on the car, The Verge suggests.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Estimates put Tesla's third quarter revenue at $6.33 billion, but it actually brought in $6.82 billion, CNBC says. This propelled the company to its third quarterly profit since going public in 2010, and created what Musk called a "historic quarter" in his earnings report.