Tesla’s car business back on growth path as deliveries beat forecasts — SkimNews
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- Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in Q3, beating the 456,896 analyst average compiled by Visible Alpha, with shares rising more than 5% in early trading after losing roughly one-fifth of their value year-to-date.
- Tesla needs just 311,448 more deliveries to match last year's total — fewer than any single quarter since mid-2022 — putting it on course to end two straight years of sales declines.
- US sales were expected to fall from a record Q3 last year after the $7,500 federal EV tax credit expired on September 30, 2025, making Europe's rebound the key offset.
- European registrations rose about two-thirds in the January-August period from a year earlier, with strong growth in France and Denmark, broader September gains, and easier year-ago comparisons cited as drivers — a reversal of the 2024 slump partly blamed on backlash against Musk's politics.
- Full Self-Driving is now approved in eight European countries and analysts expect the rollout to further boost sales; CFO Vaibhav Taneja said in July Tesla "exited Q2 with our largest order backlog since 2023."
- Tesla's robotaxi service now operates without a safety supervisor in Texas and Florida, and the company added its purpose-built Cybercab to its Austin robotaxi service last month; smaller rival Rivian also beat Q3 delivery estimates.
Why it matters: Tesla's growth is coming from Europe, the same market that punished it last year over backlash against Musk's politics — a reversal that matters because US sales face headwinds from the expired $7,500 EV tax credit. With shares still down about one-fifth year-to-date, the Q3 beat offers relief, though the $1.4-trillion valuation increasingly rests on robotaxi, AI, and FSD bets rather than car sales alone.
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