7 Positives from Tesla in third Quarter

Help CleanTechnica’s work by a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

Total, to me, Tesla’s monetary tendencies don’t look good. Nevertheless, there have been some clear positives in Tesla’s third quarter report as nicely. Moreover, simply because Tesla’s monetary tendencies look dangerous, the corporate does nonetheless have $41 billion within the financial institution, so there is no such thing as a threat of chapter or something like that. It’s simply that a number of key tendencies are within the unsuitable route, and definitely don’t appear to justify Tesla being an enormous “development inventory.”

1. Tesla’s greatest development proportion in its monetary and operational summaries was the 81% development of power storage deployed within the third quarter yr over yr. Deployment rose from 6.9 GWh in Q3 2024 to 12.5 GWh in Q3 2025. On a associated be aware, “power era and storage income” was up 44% yr over yr. That is all due partially to the rising position of power storage on the grid, and that’s anticipated to proceed. Notably, whereas the photo voltaic power tax credit score was additionally axed by Republicans, there’s a for much longer phaseout interval than there was for EVs. So, one might count on a continued growth for power storage deployment within the subsequent few quarters.
2. The most important proportion development within the monetary abstract was year-over-year free money circulation development. It was up 46% from $2.742 billion in Q3 2024 to $3.99 billion in Q3 2025. That was after two quarters of nicely below a billion of free money circulation. One massive be aware right here is that capital expenditures had been down so much, by about $1.3 billion, yr over yr. “Free money circulation (FCF) is the amount of money that an organization has left after accounting for spending on operations and capital asset upkeep. Buyers and analysts depend on it as one measurement of an organization’s profitability,” as Investopedia summarizes. Making virtually $4 billion in free money circulation is clearly a optimistic factor.
3. Including on to #1, one other a part of the enterprise that was up yr over yr was “providers and different income.” This rose by 25% in comparison with Q3 2204. So, like an auto dealership, it appears Tesla is making an increasing number of of its cash on service. However what about “different” — what’s that?
4. One factor that “different” have to be is Supercharging income. Regardless of the large kerfuffle about Elon Musk briefly wiping out Tesla’s Supercharger workforce and halting Supercharging station growth, Supercharger deployment has steadily grown. In Q3 2025, the variety of lively supercharging stations grew by 16%, from 6,706 a yr previous to 7,753. That’s vital development in one of many key areas of Tesla’s enterprise that it nonetheless holds a robust aggressive benefit in. Supercharger connectors themselves grew from 62,421 in Q3 2024 to 73,817 in This fall 2025, an 18% enhance.
5. For that matter, Tesla additionally proceed to develop its variety of areas worldwide, going from 1,306 in Q3 2024 to 1,498 in Q3 2025, a 15% enhance.
6. Tesla’s “money, money equivalents and investments” had been up 24% yr over yr, strongly boosted by Bitcoin’s rising worth. Nevertheless, one needn’t say that if Bitcoin goes strongly within the different route, this determine will undergo.
7. Lastly, whole income was up 12% yr over yr, to a file $28.095 billion, partly on the again of that surge in car gross sales because the US tax credit score got here to an finish, but in addition because of the aforementioned enhance in storage deployment. Automotive revenues had been up 6%, however on a barely decrease common promoting worth, as car deliveries had been up 7%.

Is there the rest I missed? Tesla additionally highlighted its AI coaching capability development, however from my perspective, that may be seen as a optimistic or a adverse. In case you consider Tesla goes in the correct route right here, it’s a optimistic. Nevertheless, in the interim, it’s a rising cash suck, and that could be a drawback if it finally ends up not delivering on the hype.