Tesla Earnings Drop as Elon Musk Shifts Focus to Robotics

Tesla reported a 2% year-over-year decline in electric vehicle deliveries for the third quarter ending September 30, 2026, delivering 486,532 units. While the figure exceeded Wall Street forecasts, the company saw a 44% drop in GAAP earnings per share. This decline follows price cuts implemented to compete with Chinese manufacturers such as BYD and Geely.

Elon Musk is shifting the company's strategic focus away from passenger electric vehicles. He withdrew the Model S and Model X from the lineup to allocate production capacity to the Optimus humanoid robot, which is not expected to be commercially available until late 2027.

Musk also announced plans to expand manufacturing capacity to 5 million vehicles per year by 2030, primarily to support the Cybercab robotaxi. The Cybercab is currently limited to operations in Austin, Texas, while the company awaits widespread regulatory approval for its unsupervised full self-driving software. This puts Tesla behind competitors like Waymo, which already operates paid trips across 15 American cities.