News
Tesla Motors is no longer a startup, reassures shareholders
Covering the news with Tesla Motors is always an interesting exercise, to put it mildly. The electric lifestyle Californian startup releases a steady flow of news covering the automotive industry, making incursions in the energy world, ruffling feathers with automotive lobby groups, and showing weary companies the ways of things to come. The last shareholder meeting gives us a rundown on what is happening at Tesla.
A lot of electric miles
Congratulations to the Teslarati, you have driven more than 344 million miles with no fatalities. The accidents, which the press was more than willing to spin a negative twist on, were not Tesla’s direct fault. But more to the point, this moves the status of our beloved trendsetter from startup to a fully fledged established company. In many ways, Tesla Motors is giving us a glimpse of how future companies will operate. They will require strong and far-reaching visions, answer real needs, with a business model that goes beyond the simplistic bottom line philosophy we’ve endured until now.
More than one Gigafactory
The gigafactory story we wrote a few months ago was picked up by mainstream news and shed evidence that Tesla was always much more than a carmaker. If one gigafactory is good, many are even better. With the company’s current production capacity constraints, due to its low supply of lithium-ion battery cells, Elon Musk hinted at more than one Gigafactory. Can you see utilities fretting over this one? Not only will Tesla Motors worry battery makers worldwide, but will give utilities more gray hair than they anticipated with more battery factories tied to the grid with alternative energy.
As far as Panasonic’s jitters, Tesla still believes it can bring down the costs of its lithium-ion cells by 30-percent cost, which Musk said Panasonic agrees with. The target is still 500,000 electric vehicles (EV) by 2020.
Did anyone catch the real news? Elon Musk said Tesla would able to change anode and cathode material quickly in the Gigafactory, instead of continuing the same lithium-ion chemistry.
Model S price… decrease
Now don’t get your hopes too high, the price decrease won’t be much, about $5,000, but enough to bring the Model S below $100,000. Still, this warrant kudos from a company who has only been producing its first ever designed car from the grounds up for a few short years, outselling any other cars in its category.
Roadster gets an upgrade!
By far my favorite news, my favorite car, the Roadster will get an upgrade this year. Unfortunately, its replacement is still uncertain, but would nonetheless be based on the next-generation III platform
Musk stays at the helm, for now
We’ve always felt Elon Musk would stay a few more years at the helm of Tesla Motors before retiring as Chairman and focusing on SpaceX. It makes the most sense, as Tesla is now a well establish company, spanning many industries. The next challenge is Space X. He said he would continue as CEO for at least four or five more years, at least through a volume production of the third-generation car.
Model X, mid-2015, third generation following
As far as the company’s third car, the Model X will be available during the second quarter of 2015. The other good news is that the third generation is still targeted at around $35,000 with a 200-mile range. We can expect it to be available around the late 2016.
Toyota needs Tesla, not the other way around
One of the debates I’ve enjoyed over the years was whether Toyota needs Tesla or the other way around. Even though Tesla reached the end of its business venture with the Toyota RAV4 EV drivetrain, Musk revealed Toyota was coming back for more. Even though Toyota insists on hydrogen fuel cell technology, the company is still interested in using Tesla’s electric powertrain for a high volume deal . Don’t bet on this happening any time time soon. Tesla has a hard time keeping up with production . He did mention we should hear more in about two years, once production constraints had eased.
Model E?
So long Model E. Despite Ford’s public recognition, Tesla Motors feels the company would sue for using it. The company is looking at other names and Musk said: “I think we’ve got something that might be…good, might work out pretty well”.
We wanted to offer Model T, for the Teslarati, but we feel Ford again might not like this… So how about Model Cev for cool EV, or Model B, simply for Beautiful?
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
