Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) delivered 497,100 vehicles in the third quarter, up 7% compared to a year ago, and well above the average Wall Street forecast of 447,000.
Shares in the electric vehicle maker rose initially on Thursday before falling 1% to $454.19, after hitting an eight-month high the day before.
It was a new quarterly record for deliveries, the company said, up from 384,122 in Q2 this year and compared to the Q3 number of 462,890 a year earlier.
Production reached 447,000 in the three-month period.
Model 3 and Model Y accounted for the bulk of the output, with 481,166 deliveries, above the Street’s 425,100 estimate.
Other models added 11,624 in production and 15,933 in deliveries.
Around 2% of deliveries were subject to lease accounting.
The company also deployed 12.5 GWh of energy storage products, the highest quarterly figure to date.
Tesla will release its full financial results for the third quarter on Wednesday, 22 October 2025, after US markets close.
Analysts at Wedbush said the company saw a "solid rebound" in China alongside stronger demand in the US ahead of EV tax incentives shutting off.
"China remains a positive point for TSLA, despite seeing more low-cost models enter the market from BYD, Nio, Xpeng, and others, with the recently updated Model Y spurring continued demand in the region while the new six-seat Model Y L has seen a significant rise in registrations to ~20% of its total TSLA China registrations which could add incremental growth to this key region moving forward."
Europe has been relatively weak, given an increasingly competitive landscape for EVs, but the broker said Tesla has "started to see some stabilization in this region".
Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown in the UK, said it was a "big beat versus consensus and even above the 470k+ that the dreamers were after".
After the rush of buyers looking to lock in US EV tax credits before they expired, "the challenge now is dealing with the potential slowdown that follows, and that’s where a new, more affordable model becomes crucial to keeping momentum going."
He also said energy deployments were another "standout" record, reinforcing the group's push to diversify beyond cars and highlighting the growing importance of its storage business.
"That segment remains lumpy, but this quarter it delivered in a big way."
While the shares have been on a tear in recent months, he said investors "would do well to remember that while having a robust underlying business still has a role to play, that’s not the main driving force.
"Tesla shares are trading as much on sentiment as they are fundamentals, and the core business is playing second fiddle to the AI story that underpins the trillion-dollar valuation - progress on self-driving and automation needs to continue at pace."