Tesla's stock dropped more than 2% on Thursday, October 22, after company CEO Elon Musk addressed investors as the Austin-based automaker erased a record number of unsold EVs it had at the start of the year.
Tesla stock dropped 2.52%, to nearly $377 per share by the opening of trading Thursday on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The dip came despite the fact that Musk touted the fact that his company sold more EVs than it produced for the second straight quarter, which allowed it to eliminate the 50,326 vehicle glut the company reported having in the first quarter of 2026, when Tesla said it produced 408,386 electric cars and sold 358,023.
Musk also touted Tesla's rollout of its two-seat Cybercab and expansion of its Robotaxi services.
"So the third
quarter was very strong, and I'd like to give a big congratulations to the whole Tesla team for working hard to make it happen," Musk said on a Oct. 21 call with investors. "Demand is growing rapidly for our vehicles. It's exceeding our production by a significant margin."
Musk added: "Obviously, we're going to be ramping and we are ramping production meaningfully."
"The biggest driver for demand is full self-driving," Musk continued. "And today, there's really no competitor for FSD in any car that you can buy. And to be clear, we are producing and delivering as many cars as we can, and we're pushing very hard for FSD approval in additional markets."
The comments come as Tesla has reported sales of 1,324,681 electric cars in the first nine months of 2026, compared to production of 1,324,535 EVs in the same period last year.
What did Tesla report for its earnings?
Tesla reported it has more than $28 billion in revenues and an adjusted earnings per share of $0.48 in the first nine months of 2026. Those results were nearly identical to analysts' projections that the company would end up having $28 billion in revenue and an adjusted earnings per share of $0.45.
Keith Laing is an automotive reporter on the National Trending Desk at USA TODAY. Contact Keith at klaing@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tesla stock dips despite elimination of glut of unsold EVs
