Tesla just turned a profit for the first time since 2016

Elon Musk.
(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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.

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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.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.