Tesla reports third quarter earnings Wednesday, Sell-side comments

Investing.com -- Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is scheduled to report third quarter 2026 earnings Wednesday after market close, with an earnings call at 5:30 PM ET.

The electric vehicle maker delivered 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter, above the aggregated sell-side consensus of 461,974, according to Cantor. The figure was below the 497,099 vehicles delivered in the same quarter last year. Production reached 464,391 vehicles in the quarter, below consensus of 486,761 but above the prior year's 447,450 vehicles.

Tesla deployed 13.7 gigawatt-hours of energy storage products in the third quarter, below consensus estimates of 15.9 GWh but above the 12.5 GWh deployed in the third quarter of 2025.

Canaccord estimates Tesla crossed its 10-millionth car sold last quarter.

Sell-side consensus expects third quarter revenue of $28.3 billion, GAAP gross margin of 18.0%, non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.45, capital expenditure of $8.0 billion, and free cash flow of negative $4.4 billion. Tesla is guiding for fiscal year 2026 capital expenditure above $25 billion, with management expecting negative free cash flow for the remainder of the year.

Tesla added about 200,000 full self-driving customers in the second quarter, bringing total active FSD subscribers to 1.48 million, according to Cantor. The company has announced FSD approvals in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, and Lithuania. Supervised FSD is currently available in China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.

The company's robotaxi service is currently available in seven metro cities and reported more than 380,000 cumulative miles driven in the second quarter. The Cybercab began operations in Austin and has fewer than 190 Cybercabs serving riders as of Oct. 19, according to an independent aggregator cited by Cantor.

Tesla has begun construction on its first-generation Optimus production line at Fremont, targeting an initial annual capacity of 1 million robots. Production on Optimus Gen 3 is underway, with the manufacturing facility being built inside the old Model S and X production footprint.

The company recently hosted its Semi Rollout event and announced it is beginning first customer deliveries while ramping up its Nevada facility to produce 1,000 trucks per week, targeting an initial annual production capacity of about 50,000 trucks.

Jefferies maintains a price target of $400 for Tesla shares.

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