SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. electric automaker Tesla Inc. Wednesday beat market expectations to post a net income of 143 million U.S. dollars in the third quarter of 2019, with an eye on a more promising Chinese market for its popular electric vehicles.

The company said it generated 6.3 billion dollars in total revenue for the July-September period, while it had 5.3 billion dollars in cash and cash equivalents and 371 million dollars in operating cash by the end of September this year.

The company's total revenue is down from 6.8 billion dollars in the year-ago quarter, and lost 1.1 billion dollars during the first half of the year.

Tesla turned profitable in the third quarter driven by record sales of 97,000 electric vehicles (EV), including its Model 3 sedan, 6,000 of which were sold every week for the period.

The U.S. top EV manufacturer based in Palo Alto, California said it expected the total sales volume of Model 3 to grow by about 50 percent by the end of this year, with top priorities focused on cost control and preparations for the next phase of expansion in 2020.

Moreover, Tesla is holding high hopes for its growth in the Chinese market, particularly its new factory in Shanghai, eastern China.

The company said it is "already producing full vehicles on a trial basis, from body, to paint and to general assembly, at Gigafactory Shanghai."

Tesla considers China as "by far the largest market for mid-sized premium sedans," and believes China could become the biggest market for Model 3, whose production costs will be 65 percent less expensive than the same model made in the United States.

The Shanghai factory is expected to start production at the end of 2019, with an initial weekly output of about 3,000 Model 3 electric vehicles.