Investor's Corner
Tesla’s Q2 2018 earnings call showed a more mature Elon Musk leading a more mature company
Tesla’s Q2 2018 financial results and earnings call were not only a pleasant surprise because of the encouraging figures in the company’s Update Letter. Contrary to what critics of the company have predicted in the weeks leading up to the Q2 2018 earnings call, the Elon Musk that showed up on Wednesday was not the same person that attended Q1’s now infamous Q&A session.
To say that Elon Musk has courted controversy over the past few months is an understatement. During the company’s Q1 earnings call, Musk lost patience and cut off analysts from Bernstein and RBC Capital Markets, dubbing their questions as “dry,” “boring” and “boneheaded.” The ensuing fallout from Musk’s dismissal of the analysts’ inquiries was significant, with Tesla’s stock taking a steep nosedive. Musk’s actions online became subject to criticism as well, particularly after he was involved in the rescue attempt of a soccer team stranded in a flooded cave network in Thailand. Facing criticism from internet trolls and a rude comment from a cave explorer, Musk snapped back with a retort that was equally uncalled-for. Just like his actions during Tesla’s Q1 earnings call, his Twitter reaction then was negatively reflected in Tesla’s stock.
Elon Musk is at his best when he is calm and calculating and at his worst when he is combative and emotional. While his actions over the past few months on Twitter suggested that he would attend Wednesday’s Q&A session as the latter, his behavior during the Q2 earnings call itself was clearly the former. Musk was restrained, readily admitting his mistakes and directly apologizing for his behavior.
“Yeah, I’d like to apologize for being impolite on the prior call. Obviously, I think there’s no excuse for bad manners, and I was kind of violating my own rule in that regard. I have some excuse; there are reasons for it. I’ve gotten no sleep, and I’ve been working 100, 120-hour weeks, but nonetheless, there’s still no excuse. My apologies for not being polite on the prior call.”
Tesla seemingly made it a point to address questions asked by Toni Sacconaghi from Bernstein and Joseph Spak of RBC Capital Markets, the two analysts who were on the receiving end of Musk’s frustration in the first-quarter earnings call. Musk was polite, humble even, at one point reiterating a direct apology to the RBC Capital Markets analyst.
“I would like to apologize for being impolite on the last call with you. It was not right. I hope you accept my apology,” Musk said.
Apart from Musk’s apology for his errors, Tesla’s Q2 2018 earnings call also featured the CEO sharing the spotlight with members of Tesla’s executive and Autopilot team. As questions were asked, they were addressed by individuals whose expertise corresponded directly to the inquiries. This was quite a departure from Musk’s behavior in Q1’s Q&A session, when he dominated much of the discussion. Targets and timelines mentioned during the call were also realistic, a departure from Musk’s usual bold promises and claims. When Musk was asked about Tesla’s coast-to-coast Autonomous drive, for example, the CEO admitted that the company is currently focusing its attention on releasing Software V9, which would introduce the company’s first Full Self-Driving features.
A look at Tesla’s Q2 2018 Update Letter shows that the electric car and energy company is growing at a rapid rate — and it’s just getting started. With the Model 3 sustaining a 5,000 per week production rate for several weeks in July, Tesla is now looking to raise the electric car’s manufacturing to even greater heights. Tesla plans to ramp the production of the vehicle to 7,000 per week, and steadily improve it from there until it reaches 10,000 Model 3 per week. Overall, Tesla’s potential is vast, but as the company matures into a full-fledged carmaker, Elon Musk must also mature to become a more well-rounded leader.
In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek last month, Elon Musk promised that he would do better when it comes to responding to the company’s critics and trolls on Twitter. While Musk’s recent tweets — two of which involved a snarky message to Tesla bear Montana Skeptic and hedge fund owner David Einhorn — still showed his tendency to poke fun at his detractors, his actions in the Q2 2018 earnings call shows that he is willing to take a step towards change.
Ultimately, the stock market appears to have appreciated Musk’s change of pace. Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) popped after hours, at one point rising as high as 10%. As of Thursday’s pre-market, the company’s shares were up 8.06%, trading at $325.10.
Investor's Corner
Tesla has a Cybercab problem nobody saw coming
Tesla’s Cybercab line now builds robotaxis faster than Tesla can deploy them, Lars Moravy says.
Tesla’s Cybercab line in Texas can now build the two seat robotaxi faster than the company can put it into service, according to Lars Moravy, Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering. “We don’t run every day because the line can run so fast. It’s currently outpacing our deployments,” Moravy said in a new Cybercab deep dive from Munro Live. “So, it’s a bit of a race right now. Who’s going to go faster? Right now the manufacturing line’s ahead.”
Tesla’s official Robotaxi account shared a Cybercab analysis video on X on Monday, calling it a “Cybercab engineering deep dive.” Moravy’s comments go further than what he told analysts on the Q3 earnings call last week, when he said the Cybercab line’s listed capacity of more than 125,000 units a year undersells what it can actually run.
The tour shows where that speed comes from. Tesla’s unboxed process splits the Cybercab into front, rear, side and center modules that are built and tested on their own before they meet on a short final line. That final line has just 25 fully automated stations, which Tesla’s team estimated is a fifth to a tenth of what a Model Y needs. The full line is about 78% automated, the framing line is already at 100%, and the layout uses roughly 50% less floor space per vehicle. The stated goal is “100% automation in 10 second cycle time,” or one finished Cybercab every 10 seconds.
Tesla also deleted the paint shop. Only the side modules are coated, and the exterior panels get their color inside the molding machine. Engineers said the car is designed to run at least 500,000 miles, which matters for a vehicle that will spend most of its day carrying riders.
The battery got the same treatment. The Cybercab uses an 88S6P pack of 4680 cells in a steel enclosure, a first for Tesla, with each module potted separately so a single failed module can be swapped instead of the whole pack. Wireless battery management boards replace a wiring harness, and new contactors are fast enough to drop the pyro fuse entirely. Tesla’s battery director graded the pack an A minus, compared with a D for the Model Y structural pack and a B minus for Cybertruck. Up front, the drive unit runs an 11:1 gear ratio versus roughly 9:1 on most Teslas, since the Cybercab does not need a high top speed.
Cybercab engineering deep dive — Robotaxi (@robotaxi) October 26, 2026
The deployment side is now the bottleneck Moravy described. Tesla had more than 50 Cybercabs working the Formula 1 weekend in Austin, and Texas records show 463 Cybercabs registered. Tesla said on its earnings call that Cybercab service will launch in Dallas next month, and Moravy said the company is aiming to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of 2026. Every unit built so far has gone into Tesla’s own fleet since the line moved into volume production in April.
Munro Live also asked when it could get a Cybercab to tear down. Tesla’s answer: “Not yet.”
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.
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