The Tesla brand logo can be seen at the automaker’s location in Parsdorf, Bavaria, Germany, near Munich on May 28, 2026.
Matthias Bork | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
tesla Elon Musk’s automaker reported second-quarter vehicle deliveries and production levels that far exceeded Wall Street expectations, as it looks to recover from a year of declines in auto sales.
The important numbers are:
Total vehicle deliveries in the second quarter: 480,126 units Total vehicle production in the second quarter: 451,758 units
Analysts had expected deliveries to be around 406,600, according to Street Account consensus. Tesla’s internal consensus announced last week was for deliveries to be 406,024.
Despite the positive press, shares of Mr. Musk’s EV maker fell about 7% on Thursday. The stock price has declined in each of the past three quarterly delivery reports.
Tesla reported approximately 384,000 vehicle deliveries in the same period last year, and that number reached 358,023 in the first quarter of 2026.
Tesla’s vehicle deliveries rose 25% year over year and 34% compared to the first quarter, according to Thursday’s update.
Tesla does not release exact delivery numbers by region or individual model, but the company said the entry-level Model 3 sedan and the most popular Model Y SUV accounted for 97% of deliveries, or 467,762 vehicles. Deliveries are the closest thing to Tesla’s reported sales, but they are not precisely defined in shareholder communications.
Tesla is trying to recover from a year of declines in car sales, caused in part by consumer backlash against Musk, the world’s richest man, and the loss of U.S. federal tax credits. Mr. Musk’s inflammatory political rhetoric, support for anti-immigration extremists in Europe, and cooperation with the Trump administration to reduce the federal workforce have turned some prospective EV buyers away.
Meanwhile, Chinese automakers such as BYD, Nio and Xiaomi have brought a number of more affordable, high-tech EVs to market, while Tesla has also faced increased competition from European EV makers such as South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group and Volkswagen.
To boost sales, Tesla has started selling lower-priced versions of its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and recently made its driver assistance system, sold under the brand name Full Self-Driving (Supervised), available in some European markets.
The company’s biggest benefit in the quarter may have been the rise in gasoline prices caused by the Iran war. European car buyers bought more Teslas and other EVs in the first half of this year. But following a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran and diplomatic efforts to permanently end the conflict, oil prices are now back to levels near where they were before the war began in February.
In the U.S., car buyers are moving away from fully electric cars and embracing hybrids, said Dan Hirsch, managing director at AlixPartners.
“We’re a huge country, and people live far from each other compared to Europe, where there’s charging infrastructure and you don’t have to drive as far,” Hirsch said.
Inflation, changes in trade policy and rising costs for chips and other components could be the biggest challenges for U.S. automakers in the second half of this year, he added.
Tesla stock price chart.
Musk has directed Tesla to focus on expanding production and sales of semi-electric trucks and to begin producing driverless CyberCabs. The company is also considering starting production of its humanoid robot, Optimus.
In its first-quarter investor update, Tesla said it was “optimizing” its vehicle portfolio “with a focus on vehicles designed for a fully autonomous future,” and said it expected “both the CyberCab and Tesla Semi to be in mass production this year.”
Tesla announced in January that it would discontinue production of its flagship Model S and Model X vehicles and use its Fremont, California, factory lines to manufacture Optimus units.
Tesla announced that its energy business, which installs solar power and sells battery energy storage systems, installed 13.5 gigawatt hours in the second quarter of 2026 (up from 9.6 gigawatt hours a year ago). Analysts had expected 13.3GWh.
Musk’s space xThe company that owns xAI bought $269 million worth of Tesla Megapacks in April, according to its IPO filing. SpaceX is using the Megapack to reduce xAI’s electrical costs at its power-intensive data centers in and around Memphis, Tennessee.
Tesla did not say in its second-quarter delivery report whether related-party transactions contributed to the strong numbers. Last year, SpaceX spent $131 million to purchase the Tesla Cybertruck. That amount accounted for most of the 20,237 Cybertrucks Tesla sold in 2025, according to Kelley Blue Book.
Tesla is scheduled to announce its second quarter results after the market closes on Wednesday, July 22nd.
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