A look at recent announcements from legacy automakers would give the idea that the electric car revolution is at hand. GM recently announced a massive $20 billion push for electrification. Volkswagen’s CEO is quite literally putting his career on the line to make a mass-market electric car, and Porsche has given one of its most historic sites an “open-heart surgery” just to make an all-electric sports car. Across the board, the “Tesla Effect” seems alive and well, with automaker after automaker announcing their support for electric vehicles.
Yet for all these statements and promises, the EV revolution, at least in the US, does not seem to be going as fast as it could be. In fact, it appears that for many US auto dealerships, it would be better if the transition to electric vehicles happens far into the future, or better yet, never. This was according to a brief trip by Chevy Bolt owner and CNET founding member Brooke Crothers, who recently got a sobering look at the sheer apathy among US auto dealerships when it comes to EVs.
Amidst legacy auto’s accelerating electric car programs, Crothers opted to visit one of the largest auto malls in the United States, located at Cerritos, CA. The Golden State is considered the center of America’s electric car movement, being the home of Tesla and one of the country’s strictest emissions programs. Thus, it would only make sense if the electric car revolution is evident in the state’s car dealers. Unfortunately for the tech veteran, he soon learned that this was not the case.
Crothers visited numerous automakers, starting with GM, which currently sells the Bolt EV, an electric car that is pretty comparable to the Model 3 Standard Range Plus in terms of range. The GM dealership did not have a single Bolt available on the lot. Instead, the only thing that potential car buyers could find are gas guzzlers like Silverado trucks, cars like the Corvette and Camaro, and large SUVs like the Suburban. This is quite disappointing considering that GM actually has a history of being a first mover in sustainable transport, with cars like the EV1 and the Volt under its belt.
Volkswagen’s dealer was no better. The German automaker is in the middle of a massive electric car program, one that CEO Herbert Diess considers as his personal project. Crothers stated that the VW dealer he visited only had the e-Golf available, which is an electric car from the bygone era of compliance vehicles. It remains to be seen if the company’s EV initiative in Germany will spill over to the US, but for now, Volkswagen’s electric car program in the United States seems substandard at best.
Acura seems to be among the worst, with a salesperson telling Crothers that there is no future in electric vehicles. Gas will rule, the automaker’s representative said, and the only viable way for sustainable transport are fuel cell hybrids. The dealership also stated that they only sold “a couple” of hybrid MDX vehicles in the past 12 months. “There’s no demand,” an Acura salesperson said.
Some legacy automakers did show some degree of the “Tesla Effect,” with Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, and Audi having some electric vehicles in their lot. Nissan actually had a Leaf available, and Honda had several Clarity models in its showroom window. Hyundai was even better with staff being ready to answer questions about the Kona EV and the Ioniq (though both vehicles were in the dealer’s back lot). The same was true for Audi, whose staff seemed knowledgable and enthusiastic about the e-tron.
The “Tesla Effect” is a series of initiatives from numerous industries that follow one theme: The end of the oil age and the beginning of the electric era. This effect has taken hold in the auto sector, as young carmaker Tesla ended up disrupting several industries with vehicles like the Model 3. The “Tesla Effect” is only bound to get more prominent too, amidst the company’s focus on residential solar and battery storage, as well as the release of potentially high-margin vehicles like the Model Y and the Cybertruck.
Across the auto industry, the “Tesla Effect” could be seen, with practically every automaker in the industry seemingly going all-in on their respective electric car programs. All-electric newcomers with a lot of potential are poised to enter the market as well, led by independent companies like Rivian and Bollinger, and sub-brands such as Polestar. Overall, legacy automakers seem ready to embrace electrification. They just need to persuade their dealers to put effort into selling their EVs.
Tesla Cybercab units finally got a definitive date for when they will be able to be purchased by consumers, ending speculation regarding whether the fully autonomous vehicle would be available in the near term.
During Tesla’s third-quarter 2026 earnings call on October 21, Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravy said the company is aiming to begin delivering its purpose-built Cybercab robotaxi to customers before year-end.
🚨 In short, Cybercabs are slated to go to customers by end of the year. All units are going into Robotaxi fleet currently, per @larsmoravy
Cybercab will be “transport-as-a-service,” but vast majority of Cybercab will be “Tesla-owned,” @elonmusk says https://t.co/R8Qu8QWdmp
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 21, 2026
“We’re trying to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of this year, 2026,” Moravy said. He added that production is underway on the line at Gigafactory Texas, but “all of those are currently going to our own internal Robotaxi fleet.”
Moravy explained that as operations scale, Tesla will “mainly deliver fully designed autonomous vehicles to our customers,” with the Cybercab as the first such vehicle. Initial customer deliveries will start small while the company gains experience with delivery logistics, ownership models, fleet management, and operating autonomous vehicles outside its direct control.
CEO Elon Musk reinforced the limited nature of private sales, describing the Cybercab primarily as a “transport-as-a-service” offering rather than a personal ownership vehicle like the Model 3, Model Y, or upcoming Roadster. “The vast majority of the Cybercab stuff will be Tesla-owned and transport-as-a-service,” Musk said.
The Cybercab is a two-seater vehicle developed by Tesla without a steering wheel or pedals. It relies completely on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite and has been in production since February. Early units have been put in Tesla’s Robotaxi service as of early September, when the company launched rides to the public. Tesla previously indicated it would aim to sell Cybercabs for about $30,000.
Unsupervised Full Self-Driving is expected to ship to consumer cars during Q2 2027, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI, indicated during the call. Early buyers or fleet operators may receive vehicles whose autonomous operation remains geographically restricted due to lagging regulatory agencies. There are some hurdles that remain ahead of Cybercab deliveries.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the third quarter of 2026, marking a reasonable performance on the various financial metrics. Tesla still plans to hold a call that will field investor questions at 5:30 p.m. ET, 4:30 p.m. CT.
Here’s where Earnings came in:
- Total Revenues: $28.046 reported vs. $28.34B expected
- Non-GAAP EPS: $0.48 reported vs. $0.45 expected
- Operating Margin: 2.6 % reported vs. 2.5% expected
- Operating Income: $718M reported vs. $721M expected
- Free Cash Flow: $1.531B reported vs. ~-$4.51B expected
Tesla $TSLA Earnings Results:
Revenues: $28.046B
Non-GAAP EPS: $0.48
Operating Margin: 2.6%
Operating Income: $718M
FCF: $1.531B— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 21, 2026
Major Takeaways
Full Self-Driving (Supervised)
“FSD (Supervised)⁴ attach rate continued to grow, reaching over 75% of new vehicle deliveries in North America – our most mature market – a nearly twenty percentage point sequential increase. We believe that FSD is driving demand in markets where it is available, and we continue to work with regulators to get it approved in other markets.”
Tesla Semi
“We began volume production of Tesla Semi, our Class 8 heavy-duty truck. The top variant can go 500 miles at full 82,000 lbs gross combination weight while achieving an efficiency of 1.7 kWh/mile. That efficiency allows the Tesla Semi to use a third of the energy used by a comparable diesel truck to haul the same payload. In a transportation market where energy is one of the largest components of total cost per mile, this will provide a meaningful advantage to Tesla Semi operators.”
SI Compute
“We plan to reach 400 MW of SI training compute by the end of the year, supporting the development of both vehicle and humanoid robot autonomy software. Additionally, we continued construction for the Austin Fab, where we plan to start commissioning equipment in 2027.”
Robotaxi
“We began deployment of Cybercab into our Robotaxi fleet in Austin. We reached nearly two million cumulative unsupervised miles for our Robotaxi service as of the end of the quarter. Operating hours in Austin are now 6am to midnight, and we expect to reduce wait times via increased fleet supply and improvement of Robotaxi orchestration algorithms. Grok is available in Cybercab with access to Grok Bot and Connectors, which allows users to manage their inbox, calendars, files, chats and tasks – all hands free via voice command – making Cybercab a mode of transport, a productivity space and, with our entertainment options, a second living room.”
Interested in ordering a Tesla? Use my referral code for three free months of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) here.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reports its earnings for Q3 today. Here’s what to expect, as the company will reveal its balance sheet after the market closes on Wednesday.
Tesla already reported deliveries just after Q3 ended, and it demolished Wall Street consensus estimates of roughly 462,000 vehicles. Tesla delivered 486,532 cars in the third quarter, which was a big beat, but was down 2.1 percent from the same quarter last year. Energy storage deployments were 13.7 GWh, up year-over-year.
Tesla showrooms picked clean ahead of Q3 end as demand looks strong
For the quarter, analysts have already compiled their predictions for what Tesla will report this afternoon:
- Total Revenues: $28.34B
- Non-GAAP EPS: $0.43
- Operating Margin: 2.5%
- Operating Income: $721M
- Free Cash Flow: ~-$4.51B
Here are a few things we are looking forward to hearing about on the call:
Automotive Gross Margin and Overall Profitability
This was 16.3 percent in Q2, down from 19.2 percent in Q1, and was impacted by warranty charges and some fading regulatory credits. Consensus implies overall gross margin near 18 percent, but a miss here would potentially reinforce concerns about pricing pressure on its vehicles.
Pay attention to energy storage margins as well, especially since Tesla missed GWh expectations, although it was still a strong quarter.
Robotaxi/Cybercab, Unsupervised FSD, and Optimus Progress
The Say questions from retail investors usually focus on these types of projects, and this quarter is no different. Scaling the Cybercab fleet beyond Austin amid the open NHTSA safety review, timeline for Unsupervised FSD in customer cars, Robotaxi unit economics, and Optimus cost per unit plus when it could start generating revenue, are all things to be looking for.
Any concrete timelines or regulatory path details will likely move the stock more than the near-term numbers. SpaceX merger speculation, which was detailed during SpaceX’s earnings call last night, may also surface, although the key details were shared last night.
Elon Musk just confirmed the Tesla and SpaceX merger step everyone was waiting for
Say Investor Questions
- How does the Cybercab fleet scale past Austin, and what’s the regulatory path outside Texas given NHTSA’s open safety review?
- When can we anticipate FSD unsupervised in customer cars?
- When will the CyberCab be available for customer purchase/ownership?
- What’s the unit economics per paid robotaxi mile, and how does it compare to the thirty-cent target?
- Tesla has acknowledged that HW3 vehicles cannot support unsupervised FSD. When will owners know whether they can upgrade their hardware for free, and when will Tesla provide a clear plan?
The full Earnings Call will be streamed this evening after market close around 5 p.m. this evening.
Tesla Cybercab gets a for sale date at last
Tesla Q3 2026 Earnings results: in-line revenues, slight beat on EPS
