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Three reasons Tesla will continue to go higher in ’22, according to one of its biggest bulls
Tesla will close out 2021 with record figures for its production and deliveries, continuing a streak that has dated back to 2012. However, 2021 is likely to be eclipsed by 2022, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who gave three reasons why Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) will continue to move upward, making the new year its biggest to date.
Ives, who has been one of Tesla’s most notable bulls on the Street throughout the past couple of years, believes Tesla’s performance in 2021 showed a robust determination to navigate parts and chip shortages, vowing not to let the bottlenecks, which may cause some large automakers to report negative figures compared to last year, affect its production figures in the same fashion. Tesla routinely updated investors and enthusiasts on its ability to deter itself from chip shortages regularly, including a groundbreaking announcement during the Q2 2021 Earnings Call, where the automaker had designed, developed, and validated a series of 19 variants of controllers. This effort from Tesla engineers helped the automaker avoid and mitigate large-scale disruptions in its production and delivery process.
Tesla did this better than any other automaker, Ives said in a Tweet from Monday. The story of 2021 was likely based on this effort alone, which was monumental and could have caused serious problems for some companies, especially those without substantial cash on hand.
Looking forward to 2022, Ives sees Tesla’s impressive performance continuing, listing three main factors in the automaker’s quest to continue its meteoric rise up the ranks of global automotive companies. While Tesla leads every car company on Earth in valuation, the next goal in the company’s sights must be to increase its production and delivery numbers on an annual basis, inching closer to the one million vehicle annual run rate.
Giga Berlin and Giga Texas
Ives lists Tesla’s two new manufacturing facilities as the first point in the company’s quest for a monumental 2022. Gigafactory Berlin and Gigafactory Texas were set to open in 2021. However, delays due to the pandemic and other political issues in Germany have derailed the start of either of these facilities during this year, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Tesla will come out in 2022, firing on all cylinders. Two new production facilities will launch with massive implications for the company’s growth forecast, as they will both contribute to Tesla’s consistently growing run rate. With these two factories sufficiently ramped in 2022 by Q2 or Q3, if all goes according to plan, Tesla could come close to doubling its current output in 2021 for 2022.
China “Mega-Growth”
China has proven to be one of Tesla’s most successful markets, and Ives believes the increasing run rates out of Gigafactory Shanghai will continue to surge more growth into the company. There is no doubt that Tesla has continued to be a substantial force in China, despite robust competition and a somewhat coordinated media attack on the company’s products. However, it has not stopped Tesla from performing exceptionally well in the sector. Tesla has delivered over 50,000 vehicles per month in China for the past two months. Some monthly figures, which are confirmed by the Chinese Passenger Car Association, are lower than others due to Tesla’s strategy to export vehicles from China to Europe, where Giga Berlin is waiting for approval to begin operation.
Tesla Giga Shanghai shows off its Model 3 production efficiency in recent video
Unit growth fueled by new facilities and increased demand
Ives is forecasting a unit growth of 55 or 60 percent for Tesla in 2022, which can mostly be attributed to the new factories in Texas and Berlin. This could perhaps be Tesla’s key, along with more efficient battery cells, to an even higher stock price and valuation. However, even more, Tesla’s increased production rates could put the company on par with some of the more large-scale car companies, especially if it can cross the one million vehicle production rate annually, which should be easy considering the projected output after ramping production lines at Berlin and Texas.
Ives reiterated his $1,400 price target and the “Outperform” rating he held on Tesla stock. Ives is ranked 22nd out of 7,756 analysts on TipRanks. He also holds a 76% success rate and an average return of 36.4%.
Disclosure: Joey Klender is a TSLA Shareholder.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk certainly tipped off some details of the Tesla Roadster event with a broadening of information regarding the company’s decision to delay the unveiling for two weeks.
For years, people have speculated about what the Roadster will be capable of. While there have been plenty of things said about what it *could* do, we have not seen or been told by Tesla what it will actually be capable of.
However, over the past few days, Tesla’s weather updates have truly pushed the speculation into Plaid Mode, basically all but confirming the car will have some sort of aerial capability — whether that would be hovering or fully flying remains to be seen — but it definitely seems that it will be able to leave the ground intentionally.
“Because this event can only be held outdoors…”
Tesla posted on Monday that it would delay the Roadster event until October 15, and it indicated that it had to do this because the event “can only be held outdoors.”
With the potential SpaceX collaboration to develop cold-gas thrusters that will help the vehicle go airborne, doing this indoors is probably not a safe, or even plausible, possibility.
Roadster event update
We’ve been tracking the weather closely with local meteorologists, but given the severe conditions predicted & because this event can only be held outdoors, we’ve made the difficult decision to reschedule.
New date is October 15. Additional details to…
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 28, 2026
FAA Airspace Restriction
The FAA gave Tesla a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) for 10,000 feet above ground level, much higher than the typical 2,000-foot restrictions that are usually placed at SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas site.
Tesla Roadster event requires restricted airspace, and the FAA obliges
Some have said that this massive increase is due to Tesla’s need to restrict unauthorized drone use for spying on the event.
Elon Admits High Winds
“Due to high winds, the new Roadster demo is postponed by 2 weeks,” Musk said in a post on X yesterday.
Due to high winds, the new Roadster demo is postponed by 2 weeks https://t.co/dV3ojDh1iT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 30, 2026
A reply reading, “What’s strong wind got to do with a car demo with four grounded wheels?” was directly below Musk’s post, satirically and sarcastically probing for more details.
All signs are pointing toward an aerial demonstration for the Roadster.
Tesla has secured $30 billion in fresh credit lines from Citibank and Wells Fargo in an effort to scale its biggest current projects.
Tesla agreed to a $20 billion three-year delayed-draw term loan facility from Citibank, it announced on Tuesday. Additionally, it signed a five-year, $8 billion revolving credit facility and a $2 billion, 364-day term credit facility with Wells Fargo.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that it “may draw” from the $20 billion delayed-draw term “from time to time” and “no more than ten times during the 18 months following the closing date.” This loan matures on September 29, 2029.
The five-year revolving facility from Wells Fargo will also be accessed by Tesla “from time to time,” and will become due and payable on September 29, 2031. Tesla can request two separate one-year extensions.
On the $2 billion, 364-day revolving loan, it becomes due and payable on September 28, 2027. Tesla can also increase its additional commitments to an additional $4 billion across the Revolving Facilities. This would increase the total facilities to $14 billion. Tesla said it does not plan to utilize any of these loans in 2026.
Tesla plans to utilize the money to help prop up its ambitions to scale its biggest products, each of which is either in early launch phases or still in development. Of course, we’re talking about Cybercab and Semi, which have launched, and Optimus, which is still under heavy development and working toward initial release.
All three Tesla products have one thing in common: they’ve all required Tesla to build new manufacturing lines for them.
For the Semi, Tesla built a brand new factory in Sparks, Nevada, adjacent to the Tesla Gigafactory. For Optimus, Tesla sunset Model S and X production at the Fremont Factory, which brought an end to the two flagship models, thus creating manufacturing space for the humanoid robot. Finally, Cybercab is being built at Gigafactory Texas and officially entered production earlier this year.
The cash will help Tesla bolster its finances for the continuing development of these products. Tesla said that it forecasts its CapEx to be over $25 billion, up from just over $8.5 billion last year. These loans surely help with that spending.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk and Trump are closer than ever, and Tesla could be the big winner
Elon Musk sat beside Trump as AI leaders signed a voluntary White House safety accord.
Elon Musk had the seat right next to President Donald Trump on Tuesday as the White House hosted the leaders of America’s biggest artificial intelligence companies for a lunch that ended with a voluntary industry accord on AI safety.
A seating chart Trump posted on Truth Social placed Musk at the president’s left in the East Room, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on his right, according to an Associated Press reporter. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also attended, along with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
🚨 Elon Musk is currently speaking to the media alongside President Trump after a meeting with AI Leaders in Washington today
Trump says AI is now being called “Super Intelligence” or SI pic.twitter.com/woJJqUVP9B
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 29, 2026
After the lunch, Trump told reporters outside the West Wing that the executives had signed “The White House Accord on Superintelligence: A Joint Commitment on Frontier SI Responsibilities.” Johnson described it as a voluntary statement of principles built on “robust internal controls and layers of internal and external review,” while Zuckerberg said company boards would independently review reports from outside auditors. Trump called the document “morally binding,” said he would name a new AI czar within days, and signed an executive order formally renaming artificial intelligence “super intelligence,” CNBC reported.
Musk was not in the room for Tesla alone. Since SpaceX absorbed xAI, he runs the company behind Grok and one of the largest AI training operations anywhere. On September 25, he said another 220,000 Nvidia GB300 chips would come online at Colossus 2 within a week, with more expected in November and December.
“I think it is worth highlighting the positive benefits of A.I. … S.I., pardon me.”
“Thank you.”@elonmusk catches his own slip after calling the technology “A.I.” while speaking alongside President Trump and other tech leaders, quickly correcting himself to “super… pic.twitter.com/fH7CFileNb
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 29, 2026
SpaceX confirms third massive compute deal at Colossus data center
Musk also used the trip to restate his energy ambitions. “SpaceX is aiming together with Tesla to do 200 gigawatts of solar production per year,” he said at an event in Washington. It is the same combined target he laid out that feeds directly into Terafab, the Tesla and SpaceX chip venture that will need enormous amounts of power.
The showing between Musk and Trump has come a long way, since the two had the very public split in mid 2025 after Musk opposed the “Big Beautiful Bill” and left DOGE. They reconciled at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that September, and Trump later called their relationship “good”. Since then, Musk has joined Trump’s China delegation in May and attended last week’s White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.
For Tesla, that access to government official could pay dividends. As Teslarati noted in January, federal autonomy rules, NHTSA oversight and a single national standard for driverless vehicles all run through an administration Musk can more easily reach directly as Tesla works to scale Robotaxi and Cybercab beyond Texas.
Elon Musk weather update tips Tesla Roadster speculation into Plaid Mode
Tesla snags $30B in fresh credit lines for expanding its biggest projects
