Stocktwits Zero To Sixty — Tesla Deliveries Clear The Street, BYD Widens The Gap, Rivian Holds Forecast, Ford And GM EV Sales Fall Hard

Tesla and Rivian beat third-quarter delivery estimates, BYD widened its battery-electric lead, and Ford and GM gave back last year’s U.S. tax-credit rush this week.

• Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter, about 25,000 above the company-compiled consensus of 461,974.
• Tesla’s biggest rival, Chinese EV giant BYD, meanwhile, sold 1,323,065 new-energy vehicles in the same quarter, including 762,478 BEVs. 
• GM and Ford reported deep drops in EV deliveries in the period.

Electric vehicle demand was the key focus this week, with several names, including EV giant Tesla, announcing its Q3 delivery numbers.

Tesla beat delivery estimates. The beat still left it down 2.1% from a year earlier, and further behind BYD, which sold 762,478 battery-electric passenger cars in the quarter, a lead of about 276,000. Rivian also topped estimates with a record 19,248 and kept its full-year guide.

The legacy names, however, did not get the same lift. General Motors and Ford reported steep drops in U.S. electric sales against a year-ago quarter inflated by the expiring federal tax credit.

Tesla Clears The Street, BYD Widens The Gap

Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter, about 25,000 above the company-compiled consensus of 461,974. It built 464,391, so deliveries outpaced production by 22,141 as the company kept working down inventory. Total deliveries were up 1.3% from the second quarter and down 2.1% from 497,099 a year earlier, a period inflated by buyers rushing to claim the U.S. federal tax credit before it expired.

Model 3 and Model Y accounted for 478,237 of the deliveries. The rest, including the stainless steel Cybertruck, accounted for 8,295, down 48% from a year ago. Through three quarters, Tesla has delivered 1,324,681 vehicles, up 8.8% from the same point in 2025.

Tesla’s biggest rival, Chinese EV giant BYD, meanwhile, sold 1,323,065 new-energy vehicles in the same quarter, up 18.8% from a year earlier and 19.4% from the second quarter. The number includes plug-in hybrids and a small number of commercial vehicles, not just battery-electric passenger cars.

For battery-electric passenger cars, the gap remains wide. BYD sold 762,478 of them in the quarter, up 30.9% from a year earlier and 36.9% from the second quarter. That is 275,946 more than Tesla delivered, a lead of about 57%. In the second quarter, the gap was just about 77,000.

Beyond the sales print, Tesla said it plans to start making its own 4680 battery cells in Grünheide in 2027 and build that plant to 18 gigawatt-hours a year. The stated aim is to make the cell and the finished car on one European site.

Rivian Sets A Record: The Full-Year Guide Stays Put

Rivian delivered a record 19,248 vehicles, up about 46% from a year earlier and ahead of expectations near 18,000. Production was 19,751. It was the first full quarter with the smaller R2 on the road, so far only in the higher-priced Performance version, priced just under $60,000. The company reaffirmed 2026 delivery guidance of 65,000 to 70,000, which means the fourth quarter still has to clear roughly 23,000 vehicles to hit the bottom of the range.

Ford And GM Give Back The Credit Rush

Ford sold 6,047 electric vehicles in the U.S. in the quarter, down 80.2% from a record 30,612 a year earlier. Electric models were 1.2% of Ford’s 509,764 U.S. sales, down from 5.6%. Total Ford sales fell 6.6%.

General Motors sold 25,473 electric vehicles, down 61.7% from 66,501. Electric models were 3.8% of GM’s 670,974 U.S. sales, down from 9.4%. Overall GM sales fell 5.5%. Excluding electric models, they were about flat.

Retail Stays Bullish 

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around TSLA, RIVN, F, and GM was bullish or extremely bullish at the time of writing

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