David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Here’s how the company did, compared with estimates from analysts polled by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 50 cents adjusted vs. 54 cents estimated
- Revenue: $28.10 billion vs. $26.37 billion estimated
Total revenue climbed from $25.18 billion a year earlier. Automotive revenue increased 6% to $21.2 billion from $20 billion in the year-ago period, Tesla said.
The end of the quarter coincided with the expiration of federal tax credits for electric vehicles, which were eliminated with President Donald Trump’s spending bill. That pulled sales forward into the quarter as as consumers rushed to take advantage of the incentive before it went away.
On Tesla’s last earnings call in July, CEO Elon Musk and finance chief Vaibhav Taneja warned shareholders about the impact of higher tariff costs and the expiration of the tax credits.
Revenue from automotive regulatory credits in the quarter fell 44% to $417 million from $739 million.
Even with the return to overall growth, Tesla’s third quarter was marked by a continuing sales slump in Europe, driven partly by consumer backlash against Musk, his incendiary political rhetoric and activism, as well by competition from EV makers like Volkswagen and BYD.
The stock, which plummeted to start the year, has rallied back and is now up almost 9% in 2025. That still trails major indexes and most of its megacap peers.
Analysts are waiting to hear what the company projects for demand. Tesla didn’t give volume-specific guidance in its shareholder deck, but said it’s still aiming to start “volume production” of the Cybercab, heavy duty electric Semi trucks and new, battery energy storage system, called Megapack 3, in 2026.
Tesla said it’s now building out “first generation production lines” for the company’s humanoid Optimus robots. Tesla unveiled its fully electric Semi in November 2017. While the company has delivered some of these trucks to early customers, it still lists Semi production lines as “under construction.”
Instead of promising to deliver a certain number of EVs and energy products by the end of the year, Tesla said, “It is difficult to measure the impacts of shifting global trade and fiscal policies on the automotive and energy supply chains, our cost structure and demand for durable goods and related services.”
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