Does anybody care about Tesla deliveries anymore?

I suspect this metric’s like Netflix paid subscriber additions: It used to be meaningful, but no longer matters at the equities index level.

Who knows, maybe Tesla will stop reporting it like Netflix did with paid additions. After all, you don’t buy Tesla to own an EV maker, you buy it as a bet on Musk, which to me raises questions about the stock now that there’s a sexier bet, in SpaceX.

Aaaanyway, Tesla delivered 480,126 cars in Q2, according to Thursday’s update, which I’ll document on the assumption Tesla will continue to matter for the foreseeable future. Or until it’s absorbed. Hold that thought.

As the figure above shows, 25% counts as the strongest YoY sales growth since 2023.

Consensus expected just 397,000 from Tesla’s Q2 deliveries readout. I’m no Tesla analyst, but 480,000 seems like a pretty big beat.

There are two things worth noting. First, sales are lapping the DOGE quarters, which is to say the comp was easy. (People didn’t love co-POTUS Musk.)

Second, and more importantly, I don’t see much utility in keeping the EV business out there as a standalone public company, especially considering the extent to which Tesla can feel more like an incubator for Elon’s ideas than a dedicated car manufacturer.

So, I reckon the odds of the rumored SpaceX merger becoming a reality at some point are pretty high. And no, I don’t want to go out on a limb and define “high.” Sorry.