A Tesla logo at the Tesla Gigafactory during a government-organised media trip in Shanghai, China, April 14, 2026. REUTERS
April 20 (Reuters) – Tesla’s solar and energy business is likely to outshine the EV maker’s challenged core business when it reports quarterly results this week, a sign of resilience as Tesla progresses slowly in its turn to robots and self-driving technology.
For the quarter that Tesla is reporting on after markets close on April 22, analysts estimate that the energy business will grow 25%, beating a 12% rise in automotive revenue and a 23% increase in services. Negative cash flow, or cash burn, is expected to be $1.44 billion.
NO MORE A SIDE BUSINESS
Tesla’s roughly $1.5 trillion valuation rests on products that don’t yet exist, including robots and fully self-driving cars.
Still, quarterly sales for the energy division remain uneven.
“That tends to be a lumpy business, so it is hard to read too much into it until we get more detail on the next earnings call,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, who personally owns Tesla shares.
In the first quarter of 2026, energy storage deployments were 8.8 gigawatt-hours, down 15% from a year earlier. However, revenue for the segment is expected to rise as Tesla focuses on selling more profitable products.
“A growing percentage of deployments is coming from large utility-scale Megapacks, which are much more lucrative than smaller residential Powerwalls or lower-priced systems,” said Scott Acheychek, COO of ETF-issuer REX Financial.
Investors will want to hear how the energy business is responding to industrywide challenges. “While growth beyond the first quarter is likely to stay strong, margins may come under pressure due to pricing competition and delays in passing on higher tariff costs,” Morgan Stanley analysts said.
Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Peter Henderson
