Tesla posted its next profit decline despite a sales record in the third quarter.
October 23, 2025, 05:39October 23, 2025, 05:39
The electric car manufacturer led by Elon Musk earned a good $1.37 billion, which was 37 percent less than a year earlier. Meanwhile, sales rose by twelve percent to almost $28.1 billion. That exceeded analysts’ expectations.
Tesla is going through difficult times.Image: keystone
In terms of adjusted earnings per share, however, Tesla missed market expectations with a value of $0.5. Analysts had expected on average more like $0.55. In an initial reaction, the stock fluctuated between gains and losses.
In the third quarter, the final spurt in US subsidies for the purchase of electric cars gave Tesla a sales record after months of falling sales. Deliveries rose year-on-year by 7.4 percent to 497,099 vehicles. In the first two quarters, Tesla deliveries fell by around 13 percent.
Analysts had assumed that some prospective buyers in the USA would buy before the expiry. However, the majority of them thought that there would still be another decline.
US President Donald Trump allowed the $7,500 tax credit for the purchase of an electric car to expire at the end of September. The question now is what potential advance purchases mean for sales in the current quarter and beyond. Tesla is trying to counteract this with slightly cheaper, slimmed-down model variants.
Musk had already said he expected some tough quarters. The tech billionaire has long downplayed the importance of car sales for the company. Tesla’s future will lie in robotaxis and humanoid robots, he claims. In both areas, the group is only at the beginning – and is facing a lot of competition. (sda/dpa)