A wave of good news has buoyed Tesla’s stock price even in the recent choppy market.

A wave of good news has buoyed Tesla’s stock price even in the recent choppy market.

Last week, CEO Elon Musk told Bloomberg Television that next year’s planned production run of the Model S has already sold out. The company has orders for over 6,500 units of the all-electric luxury sports sedan. The Model S, which Musk hopes will be “not the best electric car, but the best car of any kind,” is expected to ship “no later than July 2012,” and will sell for around 50 grand.

The sellout is spectacular stuff, especially when you compare it with the sales figures for EVs already available from more established automakers (so far, around 8,000 for the Nissan Leaf, and 5,000 for the Chevy Volt). But equally electrifying was his prediction that Tesla would turn a profit in 2013.

There was yet more to like in the company’s letter to shareholders for the third quarter of 2011, released today. Sales and revenues were up by healthy percentages, as expected. The company has expanded to 20 retail outlets around the world, and will open three more in the fourth quarter. Contracts to provide powertrains for Smart fortwos and Toyota Rav4s are humming along, and a deal to put Tesla powertrains in a new Mercedes model should be announced soon.

Image: Tesla