By monetary measures, Tesla stays an car firm. CEO Elon Musk, nevertheless, continues to border the corporate’s future round self-driving expertise and humanoid robots. However the firm’s most promising division proper now has little to do with both automobiles or A.I.
It’s simple to miss Tesla’s vitality era and storage enterprise, which nonetheless represents a comparatively small portion of the corporate’s general income. However that slice has been rising. The vitality unit now accounts for 12 p.c of Tesla’s whole gross sales, in accordance with the corporate’s third-quarter earnings report launched yesterday (Oct. 22). The vitality unit’s share of whole income has doubled since 2023.
The vitality division can also be rising a lot sooner than Tesla’s different companies. Income for the unit reached $3.4 billion between July and September, up 44 p.c 12 months over 12 months. By comparability, Tesla’s EV gross sales rose solely 6 p.c to $21.2 billion, whereas its different income sources elevated 25 p.c to $3.4 billion for the quarter.
Hampered by tariffs and lowered automotive costs, Tesla’s third-quarter earnings plunged 37 p.c to $1.4 billion. Whole income rose 12 p.c to $28 billion, buoyed by a surge in automotive gross sales forward of expiring EV tax credit.
Globally, Tesla has additionally been dropping market share. Registrations within the European Union dropped 43 p.c within the first eight months of 2025 in comparison with final 12 months, in accordance with knowledge from the European Car Producers’ Affiliation. Shipments from Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, which primarily provides the Asia market, equally declined this 12 months.
As an alternative of addressing EV gross sales, Musk used yesterday’s earnings name to speak up his imaginative and prescient for autonomous expertise and robots. “I believe folks simply don’t fairly respect the diploma to which this can take off—truthfully, it’s going to be like a shock wave,” he informed analysts.
Musk, who has lengthy made overly formidable guarantees about self-driving automobiles, predicted that Tesla’s robotaxis would function in eight to 10 cities by the top of 2025 and claimed the Optimus robots would ultimately carry out duties on par with surgeons. However for now, that imaginative and prescient stays removed from actuality.
What’s taking off is Tesla’s vitality division, which sells Powerwall and Megapack battery programs. Earlier this month, the corporate reported deploying 12.5 GWh of storage merchandise within the July-September quarter, a greater than 80 p.c enhance from final 12 months, as vitality demand surges amid an A.I. infrastructure growth. One of many division’s key shoppers is Musk’s A.I. startup xAI, which spent round $191 million on Megapack merchandise in 2024 and practically $37 million by means of February of this 12 months.
“Demand for Megapack and Powerwall continues to be actually robust into subsequent 12 months,” Michael Snyder, Tesla’s vp of vitality and charging, informed analysts yesterday. “We’re seeing outstanding progress within the demand for A.I. and knowledge middle purposes.”
The unit additionally manufactures photo voltaic panels for residential use, which have seen rising demand throughout the U.S. Snyder introduced Tesla will start delivery a brand new domestically produced panel at first of 2025.
The expansion of Tesla’s vitality enterprise is much more notable given the toll of the Trump administration’s tariff coverage. Through the third quarter, Tesla stated it incurred greater than $400 million in tariff-related prices, cut up between its EV and vitality items. This impression ought to ease as Tesla ramps up manufacturing on the Shanghai manufacturing facility to serve non-U.S. vitality demand, in accordance with the corporate.
Musk stated the vitality division’s profitability will solely enhance because the A.I. growth fuels hovering energy wants that conventional energy vegetation alone can’t meet. He described Tesla’s vitality merchandise as a solution to double vitality output with out the delays and regulatory hurdles of constructing new services. “We see the potential for Tesla battery packs to enormously enhance the vitality output per 12 months for any given grid—U.S. or in any other case,” he stated.
