Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is scheduled to release its third-quarter financial results after the market closes on Wednesday, October 21, with an earnings call streamed at about 5 p.m.
Delivery figures are already public. Tesla handed over 486,532 vehicles in the quarter, well above the Wall Street consensus of roughly 462,000. That total was still 2.1 percent lower than in the same quarter a year earlier. Energy storage deployments came in at 13.7 GWh, an increase on the prior year.
Analysts have set out their expectations for the results. They are looking for total revenue of $28.34 billion, non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.43, an operating margin of 2.5 percent and operating income of $721 million. Free cash flow is projected at roughly negative $4.51 billion.
Profitability is likely to draw the most scrutiny. Automotive gross margin was 16.3 percent in the second quarter, down from 19.2 percent in the first, a decline linked to warranty charges and diminishing regulatory credits. Consensus points to an overall gross margin near 18 percent. A shortfall could revive worries about pricing pressure on Tesla's vehicles. Energy storage margins are also in focus, given that deployments fell short of GWh expectations even though the quarter was strong overall.
Beyond the numbers, attention is expected to turn to Tesla's autonomy and robotics ambitions. Questions submitted by retail investors through the Say platform typically center on the robotaxi and Cybercab programs, unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) in customer vehicles, and the Optimus humanoid robot. Topics include how the Cybercab fleet can expand beyond Austin while NHTSA's safety review remains open, what Optimus costs per unit, and when it might begin generating revenue.
Concrete timelines or details on the regulatory path could move the stock more than the near-term financials. Speculation about a SpaceX merger may also come up, though the key details were shared during SpaceX's earnings call on Tuesday night.
Investor questions also include when customers can expect unsupervised FSD, when the Cybercab will be available to buy or own, and what the unit economics are for each paid robotaxi mile compared with the company's thirty-cent target.
Another question concerns vehicles with Hardware 3 (HW3). Tesla has acknowledged that these cars cannot support unsupervised FSD, and owners are asking when they will learn whether they can upgrade their hardware for free and when the company will lay out a clear plan.
