Car talk: Tesla deliveries surprise, Engine No. 1 bets on GM

Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian breaks down Tesla's big Q3 delivery total, and activist investor Engine No. 1 getting on board the GM EV vision.

Video transcript

- Get over to another ticker that's usually trending and was trending today, once again, on our site, and that's Tesla. Shares closing up just under 1%. The company reporting another record quarter of deliveries for the third quarter. Pras Subramanian is on the story for us. And, Pras, there's lots of excitement out there on the street. Dan Ives, he was out with a note from Wedbush calling this an eye-popping number. And they're doing this all in the face of some supply chain challenges, too.

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, he also said it's a tip in that-- a feather in the hat for the bulls of Tesla. I'm actually very surprised that they delivered this surprise 241,000 cars worldwide, beating the average estimate of around 223,000, and also handily beating that record quarter last quarter with 201,000 that they reported last quarter.

So really, a big quarter for Tesla, a bit of a surprise here. We're at 625,000 cars for the year. You add another quarter like this, and you're up to 900,000. So another-- a sign that people could get really bullish behind this car-- the maker because no one thought they could get close to that 900,000 in four.

So one big thing that I want to talk about is the China factor, the China factory in Shanghai. RBC analysts are talking about how that could have been the big factor with the ramp up of the Model Y going on down there. So [? Tesla ?] doesn't break out their geographic production, but we might hear more about that at their investor day, which is this Thursday. They'll be at Austin. And speaking in Austin, that's the next factory, along with Berlin, that'll come in come online within the next year or so, so you might even get more production from Tesla going forward.

- Hey, Pras, I have a question about whether EV acceptance is going to actually be much faster in the United States than some people think. I mean, Lucid, 500-- the range is 500 miles. But then you've got this deal for General Motors, the Activist Investor Engine No. 1, is that going to push all of this much faster?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I think you raise a good point with the, are we going ahead of the curve here with the adoption of EV in this country where you batteries cost a lot of money and the charging infrastructure is not just there yet? I think that's what the Engine No. 1 is really betting on-- GM. They're not they're not having an antagonistic position here.

They're actually supporting their case with their investment and also their white paper, saying that GM and other OEMs like Volkswagen are really positioned to push forward the EV agenda across the globe because they have the scale, the technology, and in GM's case, the commitment is what Engine No. 1 is really high on.

I am by no means a proxy expert, but I will say that when you have activists kind of agitating near the gate, you never know what's going to happen. What if Engine No. 1 is not happy with the pace that GM is going with their EV adoption? They might know tell a BlackRock, a Vanguard, or even Berkshire Hathaway, who is a big major GM shareholder, to hop on board and see if they can challenge some board seats. With Exxon, they had a small position, and they created three board seats out of that. So you never know what these guys.

- I got to ask you about Ford, too, because a little bit of middle-aged man stuff here. But I loved the Ford Fusion hybrid. I thought it was a great car. Going forward with their EV sales-- what they reported in September, they now have 150,000 orders for the electric F-150. Are they going to surprise the world? Are they going to know beat Rivian-- maybe even beat Tesla with their truck? Is Ford really going to take the lead on this?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: I have to say that they already-- they probably are going to be Tesla to market with the F-150 next year. Like you said, 150,000 pre-orders for that truck. You have the Rouge facility in Detroit, where they're going to make it. You have the new initiatives lab they announced last week, their Ford Motor electric city stuff they're talking about. But I also got to-- just right now, they sold 9,000 Mach-Es, Mach Electric, Mach Es.

People are buying these cars. They're excited about them, and I think it's a short, easy pivot for them to go full electric with the F-150. And I'm not saying that they would sell-- half their F-150 are electric, maybe 10%. But you get that nice little ramp up there, and you have the ability and the scale to do it.

Jim Farley-- look at the stock over the last year. It's an amazing story. People are buying into his vision, and he's really pushing forward not just like, you know, they killed all their car sales. They just have SUVs, trucks, and the Mustang. That's it. And that's really-- I think Wall Street is buying that story. And, Adam, I think you're right. I think they will beat Tesla in terms of Cybertruck to the electric F-150 first before Tesla comes out with the Cybertruck.

- We will see. All right, Pras Subramanian, thanks so much.