Tesla energy revenue drops 16% as it refunds customers over tariffs

According to Electrek, Tesla's energy generation and storage revenue fell 16% year-over-year to $2.88 billion in the third quarter despite a 10% increase in storage deployments to 13.7 GWh. The company's shareholder letter attributes the decline partially to tariff-related customer refunds but does not disclose the refund amounts, affected customers, or the accounting treatment.

Gross margin recovered to 33.1% from 20.4% in the previous quarter, yet energy gross profit dropped to $954 million from $1.07 billion a year earlier, contributing to a 56% decline in operating income. Year-to-date deployments reached 36 GWh, up 11%, while revenue fell 6% to $8.43 billion. Deployments also missed analyst expectations of roughly 15.9 GWh for the quarter.

The article notes this is the second quarter tariffs have affected energy results. In the first quarter, Tesla cited one-time tariff benefits that lifted gross margin to 39.5%. The refunds likely relate to the Supreme Court striking down IEEPA tariffs in February. Meanwhile, Tesla began production at its Texas Megafactory with 50 GWh planned capacity, shipped first Megapacks using its own LFP cells from Nevada, and reported record order rates driven by data center demand, including purchases from Musk's xAI.

Source

Tesla energy revenue drops 16% as it refunds customers over tariffs — Electrek