Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) is expected to hold its Q3 2023 earnings call this Wednesday, October 18, 2023. Analysts are looking to secure updates regarding the company’s margins, as well as ongoing projects such as the Cybertruck and Gigafactory Mexico.
Tesla delivered a total of 435,059 vehicles and produced 430,488 cars in Q3 2023. The numbers represented a decline from Q2, which was due in no small part to factory shutdowns and the launch of the upgraded Model 3 in Giga Shanghai. Based on these results, Tesla has now delivered 1,324,074 vehicles year-to-date, which already exceeds the 1,313,851 cars that were delivered in 2022.
With these in mind, the following are the top updates that TSLA analysts are looking for in the third-quarter earnings call.
Deliveries Target
Tesla is expected to post an update on its 2023 delivery target, which was set at 1.8 million vehicles. To meet that goal, the company will need to deliver a record 476,000 vehicles in Q4. Tesla appears determined to achieve this goal, as evidenced by the price cuts for the Model S and Model X and the updates to the Model 3 and Model Y in China.
The vehicle that would likely hold the key to Tesla’s Q4 2023 results is the upgraded Model 3, which is expected to start deliveries this quarter. With the new Model 3 in the picture, Tesla’s deliveries this quarter would likely see a notable boost.
Tesla Margins
Nine analysts polled by Visible Alpha noted that Tesla’s price war likely pushed the company’s margins to 18.1%, excluding regulatory credits. Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan, for his part, noted that Tesla’s margins could dip below 15% in Q4 2023, as noted in a Reuters report.
“We are factoring in help from the recent decline in lithium prices. However, that likely falls short of offsetting the price cuts,” Langan noted.
Cybertruck Launch and Prices
With sightings of Cybertruck release candidates rising across the United States, expectations are high that the all-electric pickup truck’s first delivery event is just around the corner. Analysts are thus looking forward to any updates on the vehicle, such as its launch date and price.
Gary Black, managing partner of The Future Fund, expects the production Cybertruck to be more expensive than its initially-announced prices. “It will be around $49,900 for the single motor, probably $59,900 for the dual motor, and probably $79,900 for the tri-motor, a little bit higher than Model Y,” Black estimated.
Full-Self Driving (FSD) Progress
Tesla has missed Elon Musk’s FSD predictions so much that the CEO has practically become the executive who cried autonomous driving. This does not mean to say that FSD has stagnated, however. On the contrary, FSD’s recent updates have brought the driver-assist system closer to self-driving than ever before.
Tesla slashed the price of FSD in August. The effects of this price cut, as well as the progress of the program as a whole, are expected to be discussed by Tesla executives in the Q3 earnings call.
Gigafactory Mexico Updates
Tesla announced in March that it would build a new factory in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. Details about the factory, such as its cost and construction timeline, are yet to be announced. The project appears to be moving quite slowly compared to facilities such as Giga Shanghai and Giga Texas, though a senior Mexican government official noted last week that the facility’s final permits could be ready in weeks.
Analysts will likely be looking for updates on Giga Mexico in Tesla’s Q3 earnings call, especially considering that it is the facility that would be building the company’s next-generation vehicle and dedicated Robotaxi.
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Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
Four Raptor engines failed to ignite at T-zero, forcing SpaceX to scrub Starship Flight 13 Thursday.
SpaceX scrubbed the Starship Flight 13 launch attempt Thursday evening at the last possible moment, after four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence. The 90-minute window had opened at 6:45 p.m. EDT from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and the countdown had proceeded without issue all day, with more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen being fully loaded into the rocket before the automated abort triggered. SpaceX’s launch directors posted on X, “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt,” and shut down the livestream shortly after.
Musk confirmed the root cause within hours. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he wrote on X. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.” SpaceX engineers began draining propellant tanks immediately and Booster 20 was rolled back to its hangar for inspection.
The timing adds a layer of significance that did not exist during any of the previous 12 Starship flights. This is the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch Starship since the company made its stock market debut in June, listing under ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Public investors are now watching every Starship outcome in real time, and a last-second abort carries more visibility than it would have six months ago.
Flight 13 was designed to be one of the most consequential tests in the program’s history. It was set to carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload Starship has ever attempted to deploy. Six of those satellites carried external cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from the outside during flight, which would act as a self-inspection approach SpaceX has never attempted before. The mission also needed to complete a Raptor engine relight in space, a step SpaceX skipped on Flight 12 in May after losing an engine during ascent. That Flight 12 booster also flipped 90 degrees off course during its boostback burn when five engines failed to reignite.
SpaceX has not announced an official next launch date. Musk’s “early next week” window points to July 21 or 22 at the earliest, pending the engine swap and a return to the pad.
Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli responded to rumors of an imminent bankruptcy that was reportedly being mulled after a report stated the automaker was working with the firm AlixPartners to iron out its next steps.
The company felt a massive loss on Wall Street yesterday, as the report essentially pushed the stock down as much as 55 percent on Tuesday.
The report, published initially by Eletric-Vehicles.com, claimed Lucid was essentially in dire straits and was told by AlixPartners, a commonly used restructuring advisor, to either take shares private or file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Lucid’s head of Communications, Nick Twork, immediately challenged the report and stated the company “has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year.”
Now, the company’s CEO is chiming in as well, stating that the report is “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Napoli said:
“Lucid is not considering bankruptcy or a transaction to take the company private. Those reports are false. The Board did not explore either scenario. Period.
As disclosed in our most recent quarterly filing, Lucid has sufficient liquidity to fund its operations well into next year.
We work with outside advisors to improve operational performance and execution. They are not advising Lucid on a take-private transaction or bankruptcy, and any suggestion that they have recommended either course of action to management or the Board is false.
My priority is clear: turn this company around. That is where the leadership team and I are focused.
I look forward to providing a full update during our quarterly earnings call on August 4th.”
🚨 Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli calls rumors of financial issues “so far from the facts that they require a direct response.”
Read his full remarks here: https://t.co/t3Pg1NHvzy pic.twitter.com/LvHUPhO4Qf
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 15, 2026
It seems pretty clear that Lucid is confident things will be okay, and, to be honest, they should not have much to worry about, especially considering the company has been backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) for years. It has solid financial backing, and its sales, while weak, are pretty much right on par with a company of this age.
Lucid also sent a Cease & Desist letter to the publication for their report.
Lucid shares have rebounded nicely and are up nearly 21 percent at the time of publication. As soon as the company dispelled the rumors of bankruptcy yesterday, the stock began to climb back toward more reasonable levels.
Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group has denied rumors of an imminent bankruptcy after a report from this morning sent the stock on a dramatic drop on Wall Street, seeing losses of more than 40 percent during trading hours.
Lucid’s Director of Communications, Nick Twork, responded to the report from Eletric-Vehicles.com, which stated the company’s restructuring advisor, AlixPartners, was asked to review two decisions: taking Lucid shares private or filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The report also claims AlixPartners told the Lucid board to “concentrate on Gravity production while improving its quality, and to temporarily hold back the Lucid Air, the sedan that has defined the company since its launch.”
Twork said:
$LCID The rumors are completely false. The company has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year, as recently published in its last quarterly filings, and it has not formed any special Board committee to explore the scenarios reported today. Our focus is…
— Nick Twork (@ntwork) July 14, 2026
Shares rebounded after the response to the report, halving its losses as the trading day neared 3 p.m. Eastern.
Lucid has struggled to get its sales off the ground and into more respectable numbers, but the company is in its early years, when things are hard to begin with. It is also backed by several notable investors, including the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has nearly limitless money and likely would not ditch an investment of this size so soon.
Lucid shares were down just 14 percent at the time of publication, a far cry from the 55 percent its losses topped out at during the day.
SpaceX announces new Starship 13 test flight target date
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
