Tesla shares climbed 5% on Friday after the electric vehicle maker reported third quarter deliveries that exceeded analysts’ estimates. The report delivered an upbeat surprise despite persistent pressure on the company’s vehicle business.
Deliveries declined about 2% from 497,099 a year earlier. However, they increased from the second quarter, when Tesla recorded 480,126 deliveries.
Analysts expected around 461,100 deliveries, according to the StreetAccount consensus. Tesla’s company compiled consensus, published Tuesday, called for 461,974 deliveries.
Tesla does not provide exact delivery figures for each individual model or geographic region. The company said its entry level Model 3 sedan and its popular Model Y SUVs represented 98% of total deliveries.
Deliveries are Tesla’s closest reported approximation of vehicle sales, although the company does not precisely define the measure in shareholder communications. That limitation makes the delivery report an important but not exact view of sales activity.
Elon Musk’s automaker remains under pressure from growing competition among Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers. BYD and Xiaomi are among the rivals selling electric vehicles described as more affordable and innovative.
Tesla is attempting to recover from consecutive annual declines in vehicle sales. The source attributed those declines partly to consumer backlash against Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, and the loss of a federal electric vehicle tax credit in the United States.
The Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Joe Biden in 2022, had made the electric vehicle tax break available through 2032. President Donald Trump’s spending bill ended it ahead of that schedule, with the tax break expiring after Sept. 30, 2025.
Earlier in the week, Tesla’s stock was down 21% for the year and was trailing all of its megacap technology peers. Friday’s 5% advance followed the stronger than anticipated delivery report.
Morgan Stanley analysts wrote Wednesday that Tesla faced a difficult comparison with both the previous year and the prior quarter. They described the third period of last year as Tesla’s record delivery quarter and noted that second quarter deliveries exceeded production by roughly 28,000 vehicles.
Tesla also reported deploying 13.7 GWh of energy storage products during the quarter, including its Megapack and Megablock systems. That compared with 12.5 GWh a year earlier and 13.5 GWh in the previous quarter.
As with vehicle deliveries, Tesla does not clearly define the deployment of its energy storage systems in shareholder communications. The reported figures nevertheless showed a quarterly and annual increase in the stated volume.
Megapacks are used in business and utility scale developments. Tesla’s newer Megablocks combine four Megapacks around a single transformer.
The storage systems use lithium ion or other battery cells to help data centers and utilities avoid blackouts. They allow energy produced by sources including solar and wind to be stored for later use.
Musk’s SpaceX is a major buyer of Tesla’s backup batteries. SpaceX has also purchased Cybertruck pickups worth millions of dollars from the electric vehicle company.
Tesla’s deliveries declined from the previous year even as worldwide electric vehicle demand increased, according to the International Energy Agency’s 2026 Global EV Outlook. The agency identified the Iran conflict and sharply rising gasoline prices as factors that “reinforced the case for EVs as a way to address energy security and fuel cost concerns.”
Electric vehicles and hybrid electric models represented less than 5% of worldwide new vehicle sales in 2020. That share reached 1 in 4 new cars sold during 2025, according to the International Energy Agency.
Tesla is scheduled to report third quarter earnings on Oct. 21 after the market closes. The earnings release will follow a delivery report that beat expectations while still showing a modest decline from the record setting period a year earlier.