Josh Gilbert, Lead Analyst Middle East, etoro
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – October, 2026: Tesla has put on quite a show today. Josh Gilbert, Lead Analyst Middle East at etoro comments it’s no surprise to see some Musk magic coming out of the hat after the core business has limped along for the past couple of years. Importantly, investors shouldn’t mistake a car doing flips for a business that has turned a corner. The Roadster was first promised nearly nine years ago with deliveries due in 2020, and after Thursday’s event there’s still no price tag and production has been pencilled in for 2028, which makes this a spectacular piece of marketing rather than anything that will move the needle on earnings.
Staging the reveal at a SpaceX test site, with SpaceX thruster technology packed into a Tesla, felt like Musk deliberately showing the market how blurred the line between his two biggest companies has become, and it will only pour more fuel on talk of an eventual tie-up.
The more immediate test for Tesla comes with next week’s quarterly result. Sales have gone backwards for two years running, and while the September quarter’s deliveries offered some relief, the share price is still valued on autonomy, robotaxis and Optimus far more than on the cars it sells today, so the margin and cash flow numbers will carry far more weight with investors than anything they saw at the reveal.
Both stocks are priced on what Musk might deliver years from now, which leaves them highly sensitive to any slip in timelines, something Roadster reservation holders know all too well. Flying cars make for great headlines, but it’s earnings that keep a share price airborne.
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