Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been talking up fully autonomous driving for the better part of a decade now. Next week, the check is finally due. The company's Robotaxi Day event on Oct.
10 had better go well because it's going to be a public demonstration of Musk's vision for the future of the company that goes far beyond merely selling electric cars. But in the meantime, despite an aging lineup of cars and the new Cybertruck not being sold everywhere, Tesla's actually still doing well globally at that. That kicks off this Friday edition of our Critical Materials roundup of tech and auto industry news.
Also on deck today: Stellantis blames bad marketing for Maserati's current woes and Europe is about to make it even tougher for China's automakers. Let's dig in. 30%: You Still Have To Get Up Very Early In The Morning To Outsell The Tesla Model Y, And Even Then, It's Damn Near Unbeatable After two consecutive quarters of slumps, Tesla finally bounced back in global sales in Q3 with 462,890 vehicles delivered.
That was its best result in 2024 so far and a solid year-over-year jump from Q3 2023. Granted, the result was below some analysts' projections, but it was a badly needed bump for an automaker whose CEO is routinely accused of being distracted with his other ventures and other passions, like demonizing immigrants online . Perhaps most impressively, Tesla's Q3 meant it beat out China's BYD, as CnEVPost pointed out.
It's worth noting that's purely in EV sales. BYD also sells hybrid.
