TSLA
Not just a one-quarter flex
Tesla’s latest delivery beat is doing more than giving the stock a sugar high. It’s feeding a bigger argument that Tesla’s car business is back on offense, with Gene Munster saying the company is positioned to “crush traditional automakers.”
The basic thesis is pretty simple: Tesla’s deliveries held up even after the federal EV tax credit expired on September 30, 2025, and Munster thinks that makes the numbers look even stronger once you adjust for the lost subsidy. In his view, Tesla’s combo of lower-cost appeal and Full Self-Driving gives it a lane that Ford and GM just don’t have.
Why the auto old guard is sweating
Munster’s warning for the incumbents is basically: welcome to the EV version of a bad roommate situation. Ford and GM are trying to sell electric cars in a market where pricing is brutal and demand can be lumpy, and he says that leaves them stuck choosing between thin margins and weak sales.
He also points to recent EV delivery weakness at Ford and GM — plus the fact that Tesla’s car business has now grown for two straight quarters — as evidence that the share shift is already underway.
The bigger Tesla story
There’s also the FSD angle, which is the kind of product story Wall Street loves because it sounds less like an auto business and more like a software platform with wheels. Munster argues that as more people use it and talk about it, Tesla gets a network-effect-ish boost that legacy automakers can’t easily copy.
Big picture: this wasn’t an earnings report or a regulatory bombshell. It was a bullish read-through that keeps Tesla’s momentum narrative alive — and reminds the market that in autos, the race isn’t just about who can build a car, but who can make the car feel inevitable.