Here comes Tesla ...

Tesla will post third-quarter earnings after the markets close on Wednesday, capping a period that's seen it strike a multi-billion takeover and report a substantial ramp up in deliveries.

Analysts polled by Bloomberg expect the electric car maker to report sales of $1.9 billion, more than twice what it did a year ago, and a loss-per-share of $0.53 - after adjustments.

This could be the first quarter in which Tesla reports an operating profit, though it is expected to be small at just $3.36 million. A year ago, the company reported an operating loss of $183.7 million.

Tesla's already said it delivered 24,500 vehicles in the third quarter, and that it expects to make its second-half guidance of 50,000 deliveries, hitting the low end of its full-year guidance of 80-90,000. More cars sold means more revenue, and at some point increased production, if it serves growing demand, will yield profits.

But it is also spending to ramp up Model X SUV production and bring its Nevada battery factory online.

Guidance for the rest of 2016

Tesla will have to beat the pace of those third-quarter deliveries if it wants to make its guidance for the full year. A problem in the past for the carmaker has been the challenge of physically delivering vehicles when the winter weather turns bad in some regions.

On the plus side, Tesla has about 5,000 vehicles in transit in Q3 that won't be counted as deliveries until Q4. CEO Elon Musk has set the ambitious target of 500,000 deliveries annually by 2018, with the Model 3 mass-market vehicle anticipated for late 2017.

During the quarter, Tesla said it would acquire struggling solar-panel installer SolarCity for $2.6 billion in stock. It will also assume Solar City's net debt of about $2.8 billion, bringing the total deal value to nearly $5.4 billion.

Investors will want to know how how Musk and his team plan to deal with the complexities of combining the two companies financially. They'll be voting on the deal in mid-November.

But they'll also want to know if SolarCity is going to become a colossal distraction for Musk who will likely become a sort of de facto CEO while he's striving to bring the Tesla Model 3 mass-market vehicle to market by late 2017 ... and in his capacity as CEO of SpaceX, organize a manned mission to Mars.

The deal also raises questions of Tesla's cash-burn rate. The company and Musk sold nearly $3 billion of shares in May, and short-sellers (who profit from a fall in Tesla's shares) have made the case that it will be in constant need of additional funds once it controls SolarCity.

It's going to be one the livelier Tesla earnings reports we've seen for a while.