Tesla stock rose on Wednesday as investors’ focus shifted to robots from overseas sales of electric vehicles.
Shares of the electric-vehicle maker gained 4.1% on Wednesday, closing at $446.4, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% and 0.9%, respectively.
Barclays analyst Dan Levy said in a research note that the White House is considering a potential 2026 executive order related to humanoid robots.
What the order might say, or if it is coming, is hard to predict, but it could include steps to ease the manufacturing and selling of robots, while protecting U.S. robot makers from Chinese competition. That would be a boost for Tesla.
“Robotics [are] increasingly seen as [a] major point of competition with China,” Levy wrote on Wednesday. “Companies [are] looking for fed funding/tax incentives for help on automation, supply chain, deployment…Increased government involvement on bots could spur excitement on Optimus bull case.”
Optimus is Tesla’s humanoid robot. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has spoken about robots a lot lately, believing they represent a big opportunity for his company. Tesla could start selling AI-trained robots to outside customers as soon as 2026.
Even before Levy’s research note, Tesla stock was higher on Wednesday as investors digested EV sales data from China and Germany. Industry data providers disclosed Tesla’s wholesale sales figures for China on Tuesday, saying the car maker shipped 86,700 cars from its Shanghai plant in November, up 10% year over year.
Growth is good, but the bounce came after the company shipped just 61,497 EVs in October, down 10% year over year.
Through November, Tesla has shipped about 755,000 cars from Shanghai, down 8% compared with the same period of 2024. Through October, Tesla has sold about 464,000 cars to Chinese buyers, down about 7% year over year.
Tesla is on pace to have its first down year in China ever. That is significant because China accounted for almost 40% of Tesla’s total car sales in 2024.
More competition has led to a decline in market share. Overall, electrified vehicle sales were up about 19% year over year through October, according to Citi analyst Jeff Chung. Chinese brands have been the ones picking up market share this year.
Tesla has also struggled in Europe. German sales data released on Wednesday showed 1,763 Tesla registrations in November, down 20% year over year. That brought Tesla’s year-to-date total in Germany to 17,358 vehicles, down 48% year over year.
Through October, the most recent data available, Tesla had sold 117,000 cars year to date in European Union countries, down 39% compared with the same period of 2024.
Through the first three quarters of 2025, Tesla sold about 1.22 million cars globally, down 6% year over year. Tesla’s domestic retail sales should be released in a few days.
Lower car sales for Tesla just haven’t troubled investors too much, though. Coming into Wednesday trading, its stock was up 6% year to date and 22% over the past 12 months. Investors are thinking more about Tesla’s other businesses—robots and AI-trained self-driving cars and robots—these days.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
