Tesla Delays Volume Production for Cybercab, Semi, Megapack 3, and Optimus Robot

Tesla is no longer planning to reach “volume production” of three of its newest products — the Cybercab, the Tesla Semi, and its Megapack 3 commercial energy-storage solution — in 2026, according to a second-quarter shareholder letter published Wednesday. The company also removed language from its first-quarter letter about its Optimus robot reaching “volume production.”

The company said Wednesday that it’s trying to increase battery production, specifically around the company’s 4680 cell, in order to start building the Cybercab and Tesla Semi at scale. It did not offer a reason for pushing back volume production of the new Megapack, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk cautioned about the challenges of Optimus.

“This is going to be the hardest product to scale manufacturing that we’ve ever made at Tesla, because everything on the robot is new,” Musk said about Optimus on a conference call Wednesday.

Tesla started making the first production Cybercabs at its factory in Austin, Texas, earlier this year but said in the letter that it’s still building out the manufacturing lines for the Semi and Optimus. The company had said as recently as January that the Cybercab, Semi, and Megapack 3 would reach “volume production” this year.

The pullback comes as the company plows money into its next generation of products while attempting to shift from an EV maker to an AI and robotics company. Tesla’s results, which showed net income falling 5% year-over-year to $1.1 billion, capital expenditures more than doubling, and negative free cash flow, were slightly buoyed by an uptick in revenue.

Still, that revenue boost wasn’t enough to offset the cost of business and Tesla’s push to develop and launch new products, which Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja previously said would lead to negative cash flow for the remainder of the year.

The company reported revenue of $28.2 billion, a 26% increase from the $22.5 billion it generated in the second quarter of 2025. Tesla’s second-quarter revenue also grew from the previous quarter’s haul of $22.38 billion.

The bulk of its revenue came from selling and leasing its EVs — and those results improved significantly this quarter.

The company reported automotive revenue of $20.5 billion in the second quarter, compared to $16.6 billion in the same-year ago period. Tesla delivered more than 480,000 vehicles in the second quarter, an increase of more than 120,000 from the first quarter.

It was Tesla’s best result for overall sales since the third quarter of last year, when it delivered nearly 500,000 vehicles. The increase was driven by record sales in several markets outside of the U.S., including South Korea, Australia, Colombia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Portugal, the Philippines, Chile, Slovenia, and Lithuania, the company said in its shareholder letter.

Tesla’s second-quarter revenue results improved from a year ago when the company suffered from a combination of falling EV sales, lower average selling prices, less cash from regulatory credits, and a drop in solar and energy revenue.

Sales of energy storage and solar also proved to be a standout, improving 13% to $3.1 billion. And subscriptions to Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance system, known as Full Self-Driving (Supervised) continue to rise. The company reported 1.48 million subscriptions, a 56% increase from the same period last year.

Tesla’s bottom line, however, slipped as it poured money into new products and saw its gross margins squeezed.

Tesla reported net income of $1.1 billion, a 5% decrease from the same period a year ago. At the same time, its operating expenses ballooned by 47% to $4.3 billion. Meanwhile, Tesla had negative free cash flow of $1 billion in the second quarter, a stark change from the $1.44 billion in positive free cash flow it reported last quarter and the $146 million it had in the same period last year.

The company’s operating income was $398 million, a 57% drop from the $932 million it reported in the same period last year.

A year ago, Tesla called the second quarter of 2025 a “seminal point” in the company’s history and the beginning of its transition from a company that sells electric vehicles, solar, and energy storage to one that leads in “AI, robotics and related services.”

That transition is still underway and Musk has said the company would boost spending to achieve its goal. Tesla said its capital expenditure will be $25 billion in 2026, about three times more than it historically has spent.

This spring, the company ended production of its flagship Model S sedan and Model X SUV vehicles at its Fremont, California, factory to make way for its Optimus humanoid robot. It is also bringing its Tesla Robotaxi service to new cities, albeit with a limited number of vehicles. And it’s still pushing to sell owners on Full Self-Driving (Supervised), and eventually make that product capable enough to handle all driving without the need of a human.

This story has been updated with information from Tesla’s earnings call.