Tesla’s sales are bouncing back — with a little help from high gas prices.
The EV giant delivered 480,126 EVs in the second quarter, up 25% year-over-year, in a sign that Tesla sales have largely recovered from a wave of anti-Elon Musk backlash in 2025 and a steep decline in the wider US EV market.
The sales figures came in way above Wall Street’s expectations. A Bloomberg consensus of Wall Street analyst predictions estimated Tesla would sell 396,466 EVs, while a company-compiled consensus suggested deliveries would reach 406,024 vehicles.
Tesla’s share price rose nearly 2% in premarket trading on the sales numbers, before paring back gains.
Like many of its rivals, Tesla has been battling a so-called “EV winter” in the US following the end of the $7,500 tax credit for new electric vehicles in September.
Total US electric vehicle sales fell 27% in the first three months of the year, according to data from Cox Automotive, and a wave of electric vehicle models has since vanished from the market as automakers roll back ambitious EV targets amid weak demand.
However, a spike in gas prices due to the war in the Middle East appears to have given the industry a shot in the arm. Data from Kelley Blue Book, an automotive research firm, estimates EV sales in the US topped 85,000 in May, the highest since the EV tax credit was scrapped in September 2025.
In February, before the war began, average US gas prices were just under $3 per gallon. They peaked in May at about $4.56 per gallon, according to AAA.
Stephanie Valdez-Streaty, Cox Automotive’s director of industry insights, told Business Insider that Tesla’s second-quarter sales have been boosted by high gas prices.
That boost mainly came from markets like Europe, which have seen an EV sales boom in recent months, Valdez-Streaty said. Meanwhile, she added, growth of alternative fuel vehicles in the US has been focused on hybrids — which Tesla doesn’t sell.
“If you think about the European market and the Chinese market, Tesla definitely benefited from those high gas prices,” she said.
All eyes on robotaxis
For Tesla, the latest figures show that its underlying EV business remains strong, even as the company pivots away from it.
In January, Musk said Tesla would end production of its premium Model S and X vehicles to free up factory space for its Optimus humanoid robot, which is set to start production this summer.
Tesla is also ramping up production of its Cybercab, a gold-colored robotaxi that doesn’t have a steering wheel or pedals. The company’s wider robotaxi rollout has been sluggish so far, however, with only a few dozen vehicles operating in Austin, Houston, and Dallas a year after the service began.
Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images
The EV pioneer has been eclipsed in recent weeks by Musk’s other public company, SpaceX, which raised $85 billion in a record-breaking IPO and is now valued at almost $480 billion more than Tesla.
SpaceX’s stock market surge has led some Tesla investors to suggest that the two companies should merge. Speaking before SpaceX went public, the rocket maker’s president, Gwynne Shotwell, didn’t rule it out.
“That might make Elon’s life a little easier, actually,” she said.
“There’s no question that there’s synergies between Tesla and SpaceX in our futures, definitely, there’s a convergence of a kind of what we’re all trying to accomplish in the future,” Shotwell added.
