AUSTIN, Texas — Tesla deployed a record 15.9 gigawatt-hours of energy storage in the third quarter, the company confirmed Friday, extending a growth streak that has quietly turned its energy division into one of the most profitable corners of the business.
The number tops the prior quarterly record and reflects surging demand for the grid-scale Megapack and the home Powerwall 3, both of which have been sold out for much of the year. It caps a quarter in which Tesla also reported record vehicle deliveries, underscoring how broadly the company is now firing across its product lines.
A Business Hitting Its Stride
Energy storage was once treated as a rounding error next to Tesla's car sales. That framing is harder to defend now. Deployments have more than doubled year over year, and the division's gross margins have climbed above those of the automotive unit in recent quarters, helped by the vertically integrated Megapack factories in Lathrop, California, and Shanghai.
Demand is being driven by a global build-out of battery storage to firm up solar and wind power and, increasingly, to feed the enormous electricity appetite of AI data centers. Utilities and independent power producers are signing multi-year Megapack orders, giving Tesla a backlog that now stretches well into 2027.
Scaling Production
To meet that backlog, Tesla has been racing to expand capacity. The Lathrop Megafactory is ramping toward an annual run rate of 40 gigawatt-hours, and the company has said a third dedicated Megapack plant is in planning. The same manufacturing discipline that let Tesla recently begin volume Semi production in Nevada is being applied to batteries, with automated lines and in-house cell sourcing driving down cost per kilowatt-hour.
Chief among the advantages is software. Tesla's Autobidder platform lets operators trade stored energy into wholesale markets automatically, turning a Megapack installation into a revenue-generating asset rather than a static backup. That pitch has resonated with financial buyers who view storage as infrastructure with predictable returns.
Why It Matters
For a company whose valuation has long rested on cars and autonomy, the energy results are a reminder that Tesla is becoming a genuinely diversified hardware and software company. Every gigawatt-hour deployed deepens the moat, builds recurring software revenue, and advances the mission of shifting the grid toward sustainable power. Full details on the product lineup are available on Tesla's Megapack page.
Looking ahead, management has signaled that energy storage could rival the car business in size within a few years. If the third quarter is any guide, that milestone is arriving faster than even optimists expected.
