Tesla stock pops after Q2 vehicle production tops forecasts, deliveries fall 13% from year ago

Yahoo

21 hours ago

Tesla stock climbed as much as 6% before the market open on Wednesday after the EV maker reported global electric vehicle deliveries that came in below Wall Street's low projections but produced more cars than expected.
Tesla said Wednesday it delivered 384,122 EVs in the second quarter, less than the 389,407 projected by Wall Street analysts tracked by Bloomberg consensus estimates. The company's deliveries for the period marked a 13% drop from the prior year, but an increase from the 336,681 vehicles delivered in the first quarter.
Tesla reported production of 410,244 vehicles across its global plants in the second quarter, a jump from the 400,082 expected and roughly in-line with the 410,843 produced a year ago. The company also reported it deployed 9.6 GWh (Gigawatt hours) of energy storage products, up from 9.4 GWh in the same quarter last year.
Earlier on Wednesday, shares had risen fractionally after fresh data showed Tesla's sales in China climbing for the first time in nine months.
Tesla stock is down more than 25% for the year as CEO Elon Musk's controversial foray into politics has damaged both his own and Tesla's reputation and exposed the "Musk premium" in the stock, just as the company fends off fierce competition from rapidly growing Chinese EV companies such as BYD (BYD) and Xiaomi.
New data on Tuesday also showed Tesla's sales dropped for the sixth straight month in Sweden and Denmark in June. Last week, separate data showed sales falling in the European region for the fifth month in a row.
But investor bets on Tesla hinge largely on lofty promises from Elon Musk over the company's robotaxi future rather than its EV business.
Tesla launched its robotaxis in Austin on June 23. What first appeared to be a successful debut that sent shares up 8% turned out to be somewhat rocky. A day after the launch, the stock fell as videos showed Tesla robotaxis violating traffic laws in incidents noted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Musk has said he expects to put 'millions' of Tesla robotaxis on US roads, but the CEO has a history of making highly ambitious predictions that have not come to fruition.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Elon Musk and President Trump's feud reignited on social media, sending the stock down 5%. Trump threatened to cancel subsidies for Musk's businesses including Tesla and SpaceX after a series of post from Musk slamming the president's "big beautiful" tax and spending bill.
The Senate passed the bill on Tuesday, with the draft signaling it would end electric vehicle tax credits, an incentive for Tesla customers, on Sept. 30. The elimination of the credits would shave an estimated $1.2 billion from Tesla's annual profit.
The feud between Musk and Trump began early last month, erasing more than $150 billion in value from Tesla in a single day as Musk and Trump traded insults. Musk has been highly critical of Trump's megabill since he left his role in D.C. running the newly created federal agency DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, which aimed but ultimately failed to eliminate government debt with highly controversial and legally contested spending cuts.
Investors had previously seen Trump and Musk's friendship as a boon to Tesla's robotaxi ambitions and Musk's broader business interests.
Pras Subramanian contributed reporting.
Laura Bratton is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Bluesky @laurabratton.bsky.social. Email her at [e-mail].