Tesla misses Q1 delivery estimates

Tesla reported 358,023 vehicle deliveries for the first quarter of 2026 after producing 408,386, missing Wall Street estimates and adding more than 50,000 vehicles to inventory. (tesla.com) (cnbc.com) Analysts tracked by StreetAccount had expected about 370,000 deliveries, while Tesla’s own compiled consensus was 365,645. Shares fell more than 5% on April 2 after the delivery report. (cnbc.com) The mix was still dominated by Tesla’s lower-priced models. Model 3 and Model Y accounted for 341,893 deliveries, while “other models” including Cybertruck totaled 16,130. (tesla.com) Tesla’s full earnings report on April 22 showed a more complicated quarter. Revenue rose 16% from a year earlier to $22.39 billion, and adjusted earnings per share came in at 41 cents, above the 37-cent LSEG estimate. (cnbc.com) Net income reached $477 million, up from $409 million a year earlier, and free cash flow was $1.4 billion. Tesla also said automotive gross margin excluding regulatory credits improved to 19.2%, the highest level in any quarter last year. (cnbc.com) (tesla.com) The inventory build became one of the quarter’s central numbers. Yahoo Finance and Quartz both reported Tesla’s production-delivery gap pushed inventory to 27 days of supply. (finance.yahoo.com) (qz.com) Tesla pointed to software and services as a growing offset to slower vehicle momentum. The company said active Full Self-Driving subscriptions reached 1.28 million, up 51% year over year, and paid Robotaxi miles nearly doubled from the prior quarter. (stocktitan.net) (techcrunch.com) Management also raised the spending bar. On the earnings call, Tesla said 2026 capital expenditures would run about $5 billion above prior guidance, and CNBC reported that took the plan to roughly $25 billion for the year. (cnbc.com) That spending is tied to Tesla’s push beyond cars. In its shareholder update, the company said it launched unsupervised Robotaxi rides in Dallas and Houston in April and is preparing production lines for Megapack 3, Cybercab and the Tesla Semi. (tesla.com) The quarter left Tesla with a split message: profits beat expectations, but the core car business still produced far more vehicles than it delivered. Investors now have to decide whether software growth and new products can outrun that gap. (cnbc.com) (tesla.com)