Volkswagen Cuts 2026 Profit Guidance, Shares Fall 7.5%

Ford's electric vehicle sales fell about 80% year over year in the third quarter of 2026, with EV sales down 67.5% through September, according to CNBC. The steep drop partly reflects an unusually strong comparison: last year's third quarter saw record Ford EV sales as buyers rushed to purchase before U.S. President Donald Trump ended federal incentives of up to $7,500. Total third-quarter sales were 509,764 vehicles, down 6.6%, a decline Ford attributes largely to planned portfolio changes such as retiring the Escape and Corsair; adjusting for that, Ford estimates its retail share rose about 0.4 percentage points to 12.1%. The F-Series posted the highest retail share and retail revenues among full-line truck brands, with the lowest incentive spending in its segment, and is on track to be America's best-selling truck for the 50th straight year, while Super Duty delivered its best quarterly production in 19 years. A supplier issue halted F-150 production from Sept. 24 to 30, but Ford says the impact is containable within its full-year adjusted EBIT guidance of $10-$11 billion. Ford Pro's active paid software subscriptions topped 1.7 million through September, up more than 40% from a year ago, and the Model e unit lost $919 million in the second quarter, its third straight quarter of year-over-year improvement, though management expects a full-year 2026 loss of about $4 billion from that unit.

Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles in the third quarter of 2026, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 471,262 units, with deliveries up 1.3% sequentially but down 2.1% year over year. Through the first nine months of 2026, Tesla delivered 1,324,681 vehicles and needs just more than 311,448 units in the fourth quarter to break its streak of annual declines. The competitive picture remains concerning, as BYD sold 762,478 passenger battery-electric vehicles in the quarter, up roughly 31% year over year, while NIO delivered 109,178 vehicles, up 25.4% year over year. In the last reported quarter, automotive gross margin excluding regulatory credits slipped to 16.3%, and energy storage margins fell to 20.4% from 39.5%, while Tesla expects capital spending above $25 billion in 2026. Tesla's robotaxi network had covered roughly 380,000 driverless miles, compared with Waymo's more than 220 million rider-only miles, and the company recently moved its Roadster demonstration from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15. Tesla's Oct. 21 earnings report is much-awaited, and TSLA stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).