Investor's Corner
Tesla pushes Model 3 European ramp with test drive events in multiple countries
As Tesla starts shipping the Model 3 to Europe, the electric car maker has begun to increase its efforts to promote its disruptive midsize electric sedan. As noted by reports from several members of the Tesla community today, the Silicon Valley-based electric car maker has started sending out invites reservation holders and potential customers for Model 3 test drive events.
Reports about the European test drive events were noted by the Tesla community on Wednesday. On the r/TeslaMotors subreddit, for one, u/josmaus shared a screenshot of an invitation for a Model 3 test drive event in Finland. As noted in the invitation, the test drives would be conducted in select Tesla locations from January 25 to February 9.
Test drive of Tesla Model 3 in Sweden (Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg) from 25 January! pic.twitter.com/TZNI5VzbAs
— Totoro (@terra_mm) January 23, 2019
In social media platforms such as Twitter, Tesla community members from other parts of the European regions — such as those residing in Sweden, Austria, and Germany — stated that they received the same invitation as well. Overall, Tesla’s test drive invites come amidst sightings of Model 3 being transported to Europe, as well as the electric sedan being spotted in areas such as Denmark.
Tesla’s European ramp for the Model 3 is key to the company’s success in the region. In an email to employees earlier this month, Elon Musk noted that Tesla would be starting its international Model 3 ramp with the vehicle’s two higher-end variants — the Long Range AWD version and the Model 3 Performance. Tesla is shipping the Model 3 to Europe and China, and in both regions, the Long Range AWD and Performance variants are leading the charge.
Tesla’s decision to start the international ramp of the Model 3 with Europe and China bodes well for the company, considering that both regions are perfect for the electric sedan. Europe, for one, has a midsize sedan market that is twice as large as that of the United States. China, on the other hand, is simply the world’s largest EV market. In the case of the latter, the shipments of the Model 3 Performance and Long Range AWD Model 3 could give Tesla time to saturate the country before Gigafactory 3 starts producing affordable versions of the electric sedan locally.
And from 1st of February also in Germany. Email received 20minutes ago. 😉 pic.twitter.com/pPPcItd158
— 🌻 Teslectrics (Slava Ukraini!) 🇺🇦🌻 (@teslectrics) January 23, 2019
For now, though, European Model 3 reservation holders and potential customers look forward to experiencing the high-performance electric car firsthand. With test drives soon offered in multiple European territories, the upcoming saturation of the Model 3 in the region is all but inevitable. Test drives in a Tesla, after all, are among the most effective ways to demonstrate the advantages and features of the company’s electric cars to potential buyers.
Tesla’s European ramp for the Model 3 is about to get fully underway. Apart from the recent test drive invites and confirmation of homologation approval for the Model 3, Tesla has also been busy expanding its Supercharger Network in the region with the installations of dual charge stations fitted with both a Type 2 and CCS plug, the latter being the standard used by the Model 3. Tesla’s newly installed CCS Superchargers, which are marked “Model 3 Priority,” continue to grow in number by the day.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a bold Robotaxi prediction from Morgan Stanley, which anticipates a dramatic increase in the size of the company’s autonomous ride-hailing suite in the coming years.
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Percoco dug into the Robotaxi fleet and its expansion in the coming years in his latest note, released on Tuesday. The firm expects Tesla to increase the Robotaxi fleet size to 1,000 vehicles in 2026. However, that’s small-scale compared to what they expect from Tesla in a decade.
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
By 2035, Morgan Stanley believes there will be one million Robotaxis on the road across multiple cities, a major jump and a considerable fleet size. We assume this means the fleet of vehicles Tesla will operate internally, and not including passenger-owned vehicles that could be added through software updates.
He also listed three specific catalysts that investors should pay attention to, as these will represent the company being on track to achieve its Robotaxi dreams:
- Opening Robotaxi to the public without a Safety Monitor. Timing is unclear, but it appears that Tesla is getting closer by the day.
- Improvement in safety metrics without the Safety Monitor. Tesla’s ability to improve its safety metrics as it scales miles driven without the Safety Monitor is imperative as it looks to scale in new states and cities in 2026.
- Cybercab start of production, targeted for April 2026. Tesla’s Cybercab is a purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel or pedals, only two seats) that is expected to be produced through its state-of-the-art unboxed manufacturing process, offering further cost reductions and thus accelerating adoption over time.
Robotaxi stands to be one of Tesla’s most significant revenue contributors, especially as the company plans to continue expanding its ride-hailing service across the world in the coming years.
Its current deployment strategy is controlled and conservative to avoid any drastic and potentially program-ruining incidents.
So far, the program, which is active in Austin and the California Bay Area, has been widely successful.
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