Tesla (TSLA.US) net profit plummeted 43% in the third quarter, and car deliveries fell 2% year over year to 486,500 units

The Zhitong Finance App learned that after the US stock market on Wednesday, Tesla (TSLA.US) announced financial results for the third quarter of 2026, and the stock price once rose more than 1% after the market. According to the data, the company's revenue for the quarter was US$28.046 billion, which is basically the same as US$28.095 billion in the same period last year; GAAP net profit was US$787 million, down 43% year on year; and diluted earnings per share were $0.22, down 44% year on year. Non-GAAP net profit was $1,697 million, down 4% year over year, and adjusted earnings per share were $0.48, down 4% year over year.

In terms of profitability, Tesla's third-quarter operating profit was US$718 million, a sharp drop of 56% year over year, and operating margin fell to 2.6% from 5.8% in the same period last year. Operating expenses increased 39% year over year to US$4.776 billion, mainly affected by increases in superintelligence and other R&D projects, equity incentives, and general administrative expenses. However, the company's overall gross margin increased 1.6 percentage points year over year to 19.6%.

By business, revenue from the automotive business was US$20.56 billion, down 3% year on year; revenue from energy production and energy storage business was US$2,881 billion, down 16% year on year, partly affected by customer refunds related to tariffs; and revenue from services and other businesses increased 33% year over year to US$4.605 billion.

In the third quarter, Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles, down 2% year on year, and production was 464,391 vehicles, up 4% year on year. The deployment volume of energy storage products reached 13.7 GWh, an increase of 10% over the previous year. The number of active fully autonomous driving (FSD) subscriptions reached 1.74 million, an increase of 67% year over year.

In terms of the autonomous driving business, Tesla said that Cybercab began providing Robotaxi travel services in Austin, USA on September 3. By the end of the quarter, Robotaxi's cumulative unsupervised driving mileage was close to 2 million miles, an increase of about eight times over the previous quarter.

In terms of cash flow, the company's cash flow from operating activities in the third quarter was US$6.263 billion, and free cash flow was US$1,531 billion, down 62% year on year. By the end of the quarter, total cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments reached US$45.447 billion, an increase of approximately US$1.9 billion over the previous quarter.

Looking ahead, Tesla said it will continue to expand its Cybercab, Optimus humanoid robot and energy storage business, and plans to increase super intelligent training computing power to 400 megawatts by the end of 2026. The company anticipates that future hardware business profits will gradually be supported by superintelligence, software and fleet operation business profit growth.