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- Tesla sales boomed in the third quarter of the year, with nearly 500,000 vehicles delivered.
- The expiration of the $7,500 EV tax credit on September 30 meant customers rushed to buy new cars.
- Analysts say deliveries will go down for Q4, as EVs continue to see slowing demand.
Good news from Tesla came as no surprise on Thursday morning: The EV company delivered a blockbuster quarter as the automaker raced to sell its cars before the US tax credit incentive expired earlier this week.
Tesla delivered 497,000 vehicles in the third quarter, a jump of more than 100,000 cars compared to its second quarter, and some 37,000, or over 7%, more than in Q3 2024.
Wall Street analysts had forecast that Tesla would deliver around 440,000 vehicles in the quarter.
Alongside delivery numbers, the EV giant also said it had produced more than 447,000 vehicles in the quarter, down roughly 22,000 from the third quarter of 2024.
Q3 2025 represents a brief reprieve for a company that has been embattled with declining sales for the past two quarters — a 13% year-over-year decline in Q1 and a 13.5% year-over-year decline in Q2.
Tesla’s issues for the year have many faces.
A mixture of Tesla’s production challenges, slowing demand for EVs overall, and a branding issue due to the CEO’s politics — which may have hit European markets the hardest — created the perfect storm.
Policy uncertainty in the US adds to the pain points. The Trump Administration has sought to eliminate incentives for companies and consumers to switch to electric vehicles, causing Tesla’s revenue from regulatory credits to collapse and hesitation among consumers considering the purchase of EVs.
For the third quarter, analysts say the expiration of the $7,500 EV tax credit — essentially a discount for consumers — on Tuesday created a short-term demand for Tesla’s cars.
Tesla and legacy automakers have made an aggressive push to get EVs off their lots in recent months.
On its website, Tesla put up a countdown clock for the September 30 expiration date of the $7,500 tax credit. The company also sent potential buyers text message blasts in recent days, telling customers to “lock in your order” by Tuesday.
“That said, investors will throw away the good news given it was driven by the US EV tax credit pulling demand forward,” Gene Munster, Tesla investor and managing partner of Deepwater Asset Management, wrote on Wednesday.
Shares were up around 3% in premarket trade Thursday morning off the back of the release.
Analysts said they expect delivery numbers to decline for the next quarter.
During the previous earnings call in July, Musk said the company is in a “weird transition period” as Tesla continues to push for its robotaxi and humanoid robot segments. Expect turbulence, the CEO said.
“Does that mean like we could have a few rough quarters?” Musk said on the call. “Yeah, we probably could have a few rough quarters.”
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