Tesla (TSLA) stock is climbing higher in extended-hours trading after reporting mixed third quarter earnings, missing revenue estimates ($25.18 billion vs. $25.43 billion expected) and posting adjusted earnings of $0.72 per share ($0.60 was expected). The EV maker stated it is on track for "slight growth" in EV deliveries for 2024, while projecting production on affordable EVs to begin in 2025.

"This just confirms what they've been saying, which is we're going to get affordable cars in the first half of next year," RBC Capital Markets Global Autos Analyst Tom Narayan tells Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton, adding: "We all thought we were going to see something at the robotaxi event about this, but I think folks are just comforted to know that it is coming. Everything is on track on the more affordable cars."

Narayan discusses Tesla's earnings print and what it is forecasting about the electric automaker's margins:

"They did do some discounting and they're going to try to get that growth number for the full year. So Q4 you're going to see some price-cutting. But if they can still do a 17% margin, X credits, that's a pretty strong signal that... they can continue to hold on to margins."

Tesla reported 462,890 EV deliveries, just below Wall Street consensus estimates 463,897. Narayan believes Tesla's Full Self-Driving upgrades and pivots to autonomous driving could be boosting its demand.

"The services number was pretty high. So I do wonder if the services attach rate, especially FSD, might be making making an impact here. Folks could be thinking I'm going to buy this car because of FSD," Narayan says. "That may be catalyzing demand. And kind of even though the models are maybe a little long in the tooth... FSD is something, something special here that might be what's happening."

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.