Tesla earnings under pressure from Shanghai factory halt

SAN FRANCISCO, Apr 19 (Reuters): Tesla investors on Wednesday will be keeping an eye on whether the electric car company maintains its ambitious 2022 delivery target as the biggest factory, Shanghai, grapples with a Covid-19 shutdown and new plants slowly ramp up output.

Tesla reports quarterly results and analysts are also asking whether CEO Elon Musk will discuss his $43 billion proposal to buy Twitter and if he will use some of his Tesla shares to help fund the deal.

The Covid-19 related suspension of Tesla's Shanghai factory, combined with the costs of ramping up new factories in Berlin and Texas, are likely to have weighed on its first-quarter earnings, analysts said.

Musk said in January that Tesla's volume growth would comfortably exceed 50 per cent from last year, meaning that Tesla expects to deliver more than 1.4 million vehicles this year.

Tesla navigated the global supply chain crisis better than other rivals, posting record deliveries and earnings for several quarters. But its factory in Shanghai was suspended for more than three weeks, after the city rolled out lockdown measures to combat a surge in Covid-19 cases.