Tesla

Tesla, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The company designs, manufactures, and sells battery-electric vehicles, stationary battery storage products, and solar energy solutions, supported by its charging network and service operations.

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Tesla’s mission is “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” It runs a vertically integrated approach, with large factories that build key components in-house across three continents. In 2025, Tesla delivered 1,636,129 vehicles and deployed 46.7 GWh of energy storage, which shows that the energy segment has become a meaningful second growth engine next to vehicles.

Tesla sells vehicles directly through its website and an international network of company-owned stores, rather than franchised dealerships. This setup lets Tesla control pricing, inventory, and the service experience, and it creates a direct feedback loop from customers to product teams.

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The business is built around three connected profit pools:

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1. Automotive:
   Vehicle sales plus financing and leasing, supported by large-scale manufacturing and in-house engineering. Tesla also pushes software updates over the air and sells in-app upgrades, which adds a software layer on top of hardware sales.
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2. Services and other:
   Paid Supercharging, maintenance and repairs, used vehicles, insurance, parts, and other after-sales revenue streams. In 2025, Tesla reported higher paid Supercharging revenue in its quarterly filings.
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3. Energy generation and storage:
   Powerwall and Megapack storage products and solar offerings, using shared battery and power electronics know-how. Tesla’s filings highlight modular battery system design and software that can control and dispatch storage systems.
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Tesla’s market position rests on vertical integration, a large global charging network, and scale. Its Supercharger network began opening to non-Tesla vehicles in select locations in 2021, and Tesla opened its charging connector as NACS in 2022, which then moved toward broader automaker adoption and phased access starting in 2024.  In 2025, Tesla delivered 1,636,129 vehicles and deployed 46.7 GWh of energy storage, which underlines that energy storage has become a meaningful second engine next to vehicles.

China is one of Tesla’s largest markets and its main production hub in Asia. The Shanghai Gigafactory, launched in 2019, supplies domestic buyers and also ships vehicles overseas. Reuters described Shanghai as Tesla’s largest manufacturing hub and reported a production ramp-up in Q4 2025.

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In 2025, Tesla sold 625,698 vehicles in China, down 4.78% year on year, based on CPCA data reported by CnEVPost. China retail deliveries represented 38.24% of Tesla’s global deliveries. Shanghai also exported 226,034 vehicles in 2025, down 12.92%.

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Key drivers in China include:

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1. Local supply chain depth:
   Tesla said it sources more than 95% of components locally for China-made Model 3 and the refreshed Model Y, supported by 400+ domestic suppliers.
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2. Product cadence:
   Tesla rolled out longer-range variants and expanded the Model Y lineup in 2025 to defend volume.
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3. Market pressure:
   Chinese brands have taken more share and pricing competition has stayed intense as overall demand growth cooled.

Tesla’s near-term outlook is shaped by a split between softer vehicle volumes and faster growth in energy. In 2025, Tesla delivered 1,636,129 vehicles, down from 1,789,226 in 2024, a decline of about 8.6% based on Tesla’s reported totals.  Over the same period, energy storage deployments rose to 46.7 GWh from 31.4 GWh, an increase of about 49%, which highlights energy as a second scale business alongside autos.

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Key growth drivers include:

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1. Scaling grid storage and supply chain footprint
   Tesla’s Lathrop Megafactory targets 10,000 Megapack units per year, equal to 40 GWh of storage.  In China, Tesla’s Shanghai Megapack plant started trial production at the end of 2024 and launched production in February 2025, supporting both exports and local projects such as a Shanghai grid-scale storage deal reported by Reuters.
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2. Software monetization and autonomy rollout
   Tesla states that Full Self-Driving (Supervised) requires active driver supervision and does not make the vehicle autonomous.  Tesla also began a limited paid robotaxi trial in Austin on June 22, 2025 with safety monitors in the front passenger seat, which keeps autonomy progress tied to safety performance and regulatory acceptance.  From February 14, 2026, Tesla plans to offer FSD only via subscription, which shifts the autonomy story toward recurring revenue.
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3. New products and new segments
   Tesla reported first builds of a more affordable model in June 2025, with volume production planned for the second half of 2025. It also stated that Semi and Cybercab are slated for volume production in 2026, and its Q3 2025 update said Cybercab, Tesla Semi, and Megapack 3 remain on schedule for volume production starting in 2026, with Optimus production lines being installed.
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Main risks center on pricing pressure in EVs, safety scrutiny for driver-assistance systems, and rollout constraints from regulation and real-world performance in autonomy pilots.