[diebeforei485]

I'm not sure what "half a billion" refers to, but here are the annual numbers[1], which are easily accessible on their investor relations page[2] or from the SEC EDGAR system if you prefer.

Regulatory credits: $1.465 B

Total revenues: $53.823 B

GAAP profits: $5.519B

To claim that the company would be unprofitable without the credits is nonsense.

Every company does financial planning. Tesla knows they sell more regulatory credits in Q1, so they can also plan to spend more during that quarter.

1. https://tesla-cdn.thron.com/delivery/public/document/tesla/9...

2. https://ir.tesla.com