Tesla reports 486,532 vehicle deliveries for third quarter, topping expectation
Tesla just reported vehicle deliveries and production for the third quarter. Shares of Elon Musk's EV maker climbed about 2% following the news.
Deliveries fell about 2% from 497,099 a year earlier, but climbed from the second quarter, when Tesla recorded 480,126 deliveries.
Analysts were expecting around 461,100 deliveries, according to StreetAccount's consensus. Tesla's company-compiled consensus, published Tuesday, was for 461,974 deliveries.
Tesla doesn't break out exact delivery numbers by individual model or region, but the company said its entry-level Model 3 sedan and most popular Model Y SUVs accounted for a vast majority, or 98%, of its deliveries.
Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales reported by Tesla but are not precisely defined in its shareholder communications.
Musk's automaker is under pressure due to surging competition from Chinese electric vehicle makers, such BYD and Xiaomi, which sell more affordable and innovative EVs. Tesla is trying to recover from consecutive annual declines in vehicle sales that were partly caused by a consumer backlash against Musk, the world's wealthiest person, and by the loss of a U.S. federal tax credit.
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed in 2022 by President Joe Biden, had made the EV tax break available through 2032. President Donald Trump's spending bill curtailed it ahead of schedule, ending the tax break after Sept. 30, 2025.
Tesla's stock is down 21% this year as of Tuesday's close, underperforming all of its megacap tech peers.
Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note published Wednesday that Tesla's third-quarter deliveries would be a "tough comparison" to a year ago and the prior period. Last year's third period was Tesla's "record delivery quarter," they wrote, and in the second quarter, deliveries "exceeded production by roughly 28K vehicles."
Tesla also said Friday that it deployed 13.7 GWh of energy storage products, including its Megapack and Megablock systems, during the quarter. A year ago Tesla deployed 12.5 GWh of such products, and last quarter that figure was 13.5 GWh.
Megapacks are used for business and utility-scale developments, and Tesla's newer Megablocks are a combination of four Megapacks around one transformer. The systems use lithium-ion or other battery cells to help data centers and utilities avoid blackouts, allowing for energy storage from sources like solar and wind.
Musk's SpaceX is a large buyer of Tesla's backup batteries, and has also purchased millions of dollars worth of its Cybertruck pickups.
While Tesla is experiencing declines in deliveries, EV demand is up across the globe this year, according to a 2026 Global EV Outlook by the International Energy Agency. The IEA pointed to the Iran conflict and soaring gas prices as catalysts that "reinforced the case for EVs as a way to address energy security and fuel cost concerns."
In 2020, EVs and hybrid electric models represented under 5% of new car sales worldwide. That share reached one in four new cars sold in 2025, according to IEA.
Tesla said it will report third-quarter earnings on Oct. 21 after the market close.
