Tesla, Inc.

Vaibhav Taneja said Tesla had its second consecutive quarter of vehicle deliveries above 480,000, and that automotive gross margin excluding credits increased sequentially from 16.3% to 18.1%. Energy deployments reached 13.7 gigawatt hours, and energy gross margin improved from 20.4% to 33.1%. Services and other margin rose to 15.9% from 14.1%, and Tesla ended the quarter with positive free cash flow of over $1.5 billion and an overall cash and investment balance of over $45 billion. Management said CapEx guidance is being revised to approximately $20 billion for the current year, and Tesla secured capacity to borrow up to $30 billion, though it does not plan to draw on those facilities this calendar year. Forward-looking commentary included continued production ramps across factories, broader FSD approval efforts, Cybercab launches in additional cities before year-end, and a path to meaningful Robotaxi revenue/profitability in 2027, with bigger impact expected in Q2 and then Q3/Q4 next year.

Elon Musk’s tone was highly optimistic and focused on scale: he called Q3 very strong and said vehicle demand is growing rapidly and exceeding production by a significant margin. He framed FSD as the biggest demand driver, said Tesla is pushing for approvals in more countries, and emphasized that Robotaxi miles are scaling exponentially. He also spotlighted longer-term bets—Optimus, Terafab, and large-scale manufacturing—while warning that Optimus still has major technical and production work ahead before it becomes a customer product.

Vaibhav Taneja focused on margin improvement, operating discipline, and funding the growth cycle. He highlighted automotive gross margin excluding credits of 18.1% versus 16.3% sequentially, energy gross margin of 33.1% versus 20.4%, and services/other margin of 15.9% versus 14.1%; he also cited positive free cash flow of over $1.5 billion and cash and investments of over $45 billion. On capital allocation, he said CapEx is now expected to be approximately $20 billion this year, funded primarily from operations, and that Tesla secured up to $30 billion of borrowing capacity without planning to draw this calendar year. He tied rising OpEx to R&D and preproduction costs for AI, Optimus, Megapack 3, Semi, and compute.

Analysts pressed Tesla on whether competitors could copy FSD and pressure pricing, but management replied that the problem is extremely hard and that Tesla’s lead should persist for years. Questions on Robotaxi economics centered on the path to a $0.30-per-mile target; management said it is not there yet but sees a clear path as utilization and scale improve, with revenue/profitability becoming noticeable in 2027. There was also heavy focus on Optimus readiness, with management saying the main bottlenecks are the hands, AI architecture, and training data, and that customer delivery is still expected around the end of next year. On China, Tesla said the regulatory path is still difficult but the technology advantage remains; on mapping, Tesla said it is building an AI-based in-house mapping/navigation stack rather than relying on third-party maps.