San Francisco, Apr 27 (IANS): Before it starts India operations this year, Tesla has reported $10.3 billion in sales and net income of $438 million in the first quarter of 2021, a growth of 74 per cent from a the year-ago period, along with making $101 million on sales of Bitcoins which is its next big bet.

In its quarterly earnings presented late on Monday, Tesla reported it produced 180,338 vehicles in Q1 and delivered 184,777 vehicles.

"In Q1, we achieved our highest ever vehicle production and deliveries. This was in spite of multiple challenges, including seasonality, supply chain instability and the transition to the new Model S and Model X," the company said in a statement.

"Due to the launch of new products and new factories and the reduced mix of Model S and Model X, our average cost declined to sub-$38,000 per vehicle in Q1," the electric car-maker said.

Model 3 was the best-selling premium sedan in the world, outselling long-time industry leaders such as the 3 Series and EClass.

"This demonstrates that an electric vehicle can be a category leader and outsell its gas-powered counterparts. We believe Model Y can become not just a category leader, but also the best-selling vehicle of any kind globally," Tesla said.

Tesla made about $101 million on the sale of Bitcoin in the first quarter. The company announced in January this year that it had bought $1.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency and started allowing customers to pay for cars using bitcoin.

"We are currently building Model Y capacity at Gigafactory Berlin and Gigafactory Texas and remain on track to start production and deliveries from each location in 2021. Gigafactory Shanghai will continue to expand further over time. Tesla Semi deliveries will also begin in 2021," the company informed.