Elon Musk already has a clear plan for the first political favor he’ll seek if Donald Trump wins next month’s election.
The Tesla CEO aims to roll out an advanced version of his Full Self-Driving (FSD) software next year, allowing cars to operate without driver supervision.
Musk acknowledged Wednesday that the timeline for the release of FSD, initially set for California and Texas, depends on state regulations—an area where he currently has no sway.
“If there’s a Department of Government Efficiency, I’ll try to help make that happen,” Musk said during Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, adding it would benefit all industries, not just Tesla.
Musk, like many tech billionaires, frequently clashes with regulators, whom he views as obstacles to innovation.
What is the DOGE?
Should Trump be elected, the Tesla CEO will volunteer to create a kind of garbage collection service that tosses out old rules and regulations.
Musk has suggested scrapping about three-quarters of federal agencies to streamline operations.
As head of a proposed new department under Trump, dubbed DOGE, Musk would advocate for a national approval process for autonomous vehicles, replacing the current patchwork of state regulations.
This process, as Musk envisions it, would involve minimal paperwork, easing the path to approval.
Rival Waymo, for example, has spent years sharing safety data with California regulators before gaining approval for its robotaxi service.
Tesla, by contrast, has avoided this by classifying its FSD software as a driver-assist feature rather than a fully autonomous system.
Musk, a vocal Trump supporter, has already hinted he would direct regulatory questions to Trump, paving the way for legislation that could benefit his companies.
Finally—rising profitability in its cars business (for now)
On Wednesday, Tesla shocked investors with a robust Q3 income statement that saw improvements almost across the board, which flew in the face of a notably disappointing vehicle delivery figure published at the start of October.
Results showed a sequential improvement in Tesla’s key profitability metric—auto gross margins excluding regulatory credits.
This jumped to 17.1% from 14.6% in Q2 on the back of a dramatic reduction in costs, potentially the result of scaling production of its Cybertruck, which the company said was now earning a gross profit per unit for the first time.
“It's been three years since we have seen that kind of quarter-over-quarter improvement,” said Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management.
Finance chief Vaibhav Taneja, however, warned that maintaining this level of profitability would be “challenging” in the current quarter.
Record Q4 and up to 30% growth in 2025
Tesla shares jumped 15% as trading began on Thursday.
Just as important as the Q3 bump in margins for the market’s bullish reaction was the company’s bullish outlook.
Tesla guided for “slight growth” in vehicle deliveries over the 1.8 million from 2023, a goal many had doubted given Tesla sales through the first nine months are down.
This implies a blowout finale to the year with a minimum of 515,000 cars handed over to customers in the last three months, an increase over the previous all-time high of 485,000 from the fourth quarter of 2023.
Moreover, Musk predicted sales would rise by 20% or even 30% next year, implying a volume of around 2.3 million vehicles.
This would be thanks in part to the addition of a new product in the lineup in the first half of next year—cars that until now have never been seen.
No more $25,000 ‘Model 2’
However, there is one problem.
Musk seemed to suggest the only brand-new model would be the two-seat Cybercab, first unveiled earlier this month and slated for volume production in 2026.
To reduce the cost of manufacturing to around $25,000 each, the Cybercab would not be available with a steering wheel and pedals as many Tesla fans had hoped.
That would mean no low-cost “Model 2” in the traditional sense, something many analysts had anticipated until now.
This would leave only a cheaper version of the Model 3/Y family as next year’s upcoming new entry version to drive up to 30% growth in car sales, to which Musk alluded.
“Having a regular $25K model is pointless,” Musk countered on Wednesday. “It would be silly; it would be completely at odds with what we believe.”
The problem is that virtually no market in the world has even approved such a vehicle for wide-scale use in ride-hailing fleets, let alone for sale to the average consumer.
This makes its launch dependent on regulations that are outside of Tesla’s control.
It looks as if Musk aims to change that should Trump be elected on Nov. 5.
