Key points
- Tesla delivered more cars than analysts expected
- European sales rebounded
- Energy storage came in below forecasts
Tesla (TSLA) delivered 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter, the company said on Oct. 2, beating Wall Street's forecast as sales in Europe recovered. Its shares closed up 4.7% at $370.59 on Oct. 2, against the $354.11 close on Oct. 1.
Analysts had expected 456,896 deliveries, according to Visible Alpha data cited by Reuters. Tesla's own company-compiled consensus was higher, at 461,974 deliveries from 24 analysts, and Tesla beat that by 24,558.
Tesla's production and delivery report showed 464,391 vehicles built in the quarter. It delivered 22,141 more than that, so some of the cars it delivered were built in earlier periods.
| Q3 2026 | Produced | Delivered |
|---|---|---|
| Model 3/Y | 457,387 | 478,237 |
| Other models | 7,004 | 8,295 |
| Total | 464,391 | 486,532 |
Deliveries rose from the second quarter but trailed last year's record
Deliveries rose about 1.3% from the second quarter's 480,126. They were about 2.1% below the 497,099 Tesla delivered in the third quarter of 2025. That year-ago quarter was a record, as US buyers rushed to take delivery before the $7,500 federal EV tax credit expired at the end of September 2025.
Tesla delivered 1,636,129 vehicles in 2025, according to its fourth-quarter report. With 1,324,681 delivered so far this year, it needs 311,448 more in the fourth quarter to match that total. Tesla has delivered more than that in every quarter since mid-2022. Analysts now expect 1.82 million deliveries in 2026, up from 1.65 million in the June consensus. That would end two straight years of declining sales.
"The strong numbers put Tesla on track for full-year deliveries growth following two years of declines," said Seth Goldstein, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar.
Tesla's European sales are recovering
Tesla's sales in Europe slumped last year, partly because of backlash against Elon Musk's politics and partly because of cheaper Chinese rivals. This year, Tesla's EU registrations rose by about two-thirds in January through August from a year earlier, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association.
The recovery picked up in the third quarter, with strong registration growth in France and Denmark and broader gains in September. Government incentives, easier comparisons with last year, and rising interest in EVs all helped. Tesla's Full Self-Driving software is now approved in eight European countries, and analysts expect the rollout to support sales further.
Energy storage fell short of forecasts
Tesla deployed 13.7 gigawatt-hours of storage products in the quarter, below the 15.9 GWh in the company-compiled analyst consensus.
Investors are also looking past car sales. Tesla's roughly $1.4 trillion market value depends heavily on Musk's plans for AI, robotaxis, and humanoid robots. Tesla added its Cybercab to its robotaxi service in Austin last month, and Musk said in an X post on Oct. 1 that the company had halved the planned memory on its AI5 chip to get enough supply for its Optimus robots.
Tesla will report third-quarter results after the market closes on Oct. 21.
