ii view: excitement about Tesla's other interests

A self-driving taxi service in Texas and the potential start of production for humanoid robots in 2026. Analyst Keith Bowman looks at prospects for this Magnificent Seven company.

17th November 2025 11:39

by Keith Bowman from interactive investor

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A Tesla Optimus robot inside a Tesla pop-up store in Tokyo. Photo by Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.

Third-quarter results to 30 September

Total revenue up 12% $28.1 billion
Auto revenue up 6% to $21.2 billion
Energy generation and storage revenue up 44% to $3.41 billion
Services and other revenue up 25% to $3.47 billion
Adjusted earnings down 31% to $0.50 per share
Cash and investments held up 24% to $41.6 billion

ii round-up:

Started in 2003, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) designs, develops, makes, and sells fully electric vehicles (EVs). Vehicle sales accounted for 75% of third-quarter total revenues.

A second division makes and sells Energy Generation and Storage Systems, accounting for 12.5% of Q3 revenues.

Finally, the group’s Services and Other division, accounting for a further 12.5% of revenues, provides an expanding network of vehicle charging stations as well as housing its early stage self-drive or Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas and the Bay area of San Franciso.

For a round-up of these latest results announced on 22 October, please click here.

ii view:

Founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, Tesla is today headed by key early investor Elon Musk. As well as two factories in the US, it also operates plants in both Germany and China. Geographically, the US dominated in 2024 with close to half of all revenues. That was followed by China at just over a fifth, and other markets and including the UK, the balance of close to a third. Tesla’s stock market value of $1.34 trillion compares to rivals like General Motors Co (NYSE:GM) at $66 billion and Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) at $52 billion.

For investors, rivals such as Volkswagen AG (XETRA:VOW) and BYD in China are now actively pushing their own competitively priced EV and hybrid models. US trade tariffs were highlighted as a factor in raising costs and reducing profits during this latest quarter. Accompanying management comments flag the uncertain economic outlook in making sales difficult to predict. A key US government tax incentive making Tesla cars cheaper has now been removed, while a forecast price-to-net asset value (NAV) of around 18 times compares to rivals at under two times, suggesting the shares are not obviously cheap.

On the upside, Elon Musk continues to describe Tesla as a technology company developing self-driving AI fuelled software, a robotaxi and humanoid robots all potentially generating significant profits in future. Record deliveries during this latest quarter for countries including South Korea and Japan continue to combine with innovation in manufacturing techniques to reduce costs. Sales at both Energy and Services each rose by double digits, with sales away from vehicle sales up to 25% compared to 20.5% in Q3 2024, while concerns about global climate change have not gone away.

Worries about reduced vehicle sales do provide reason for caution, and we've just seen that a wider market sell-off can have a significant impact on Tesla's share price. However, growing demand for Tesla's other businesses and likely production of Optimus robots and other products, will likely keep its army of fans interested.

Positives:

Climate change concerns persist
Expanding network of superfast charging stations

Negatives:

Rising competition from other manufacturers
Potential regulatory hurdles for self-driving vehicles

The average rating of stock market analysts:

Strong hold

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