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Tesla receives a $1 PT increase from RBC Capital: Report

Credit: Tesla North America | X

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RBC Capital raised Tesla’s price target by $1 from $297 to $298 and maintained its Outperform rating, reported The Street.

RBC Capital analyst Tom Narayan included Tesla’s Megapack business in his price point estimate. RBC Capital sees potential in Tesla’s Megapack business, including $117 billion in extra value for the energy storage systems in the company’s valuation. 

Tesla Megapacks represent 11% of Tesla’s overall price point from RBC Capital, assuming it stays at a flat market share of 15% despite having a 30% cost advantage versus its peers. The investment bank also predicts 25% EBITDA margins despite decreasing battery costs. 

“Given conservatism embedded in our base case, we believe the [Megapack] business is probably worth between $100 to $200 billion.”

The investment bank’s upside scenario for Tesla’s Megapack business is a 20% market share and 30% EBITDA margins with a $212 billion valuation. 

RBC Capital has a conservative outlook for Tesla’s car business. It lowered Tesla’s Autonomy valuation due to reduced licensing penetration expectations. 

By 2035, the investment bank forecasts that Tesla will sell ~2.5 million vehicles per year in North America, ~800,000 in Western Europe, and ~1.7 million in China. It predicts that the Model 3 and Model Y will account for ~2.3 million units sold yearly, while the upcoming Model 2 will account for ~3 million per year at maturity. 

“Given our expectation that management’s goal is to increase volumes in order to sell autonomy, we have gross margins falling from 18% in 2023 to 11% by 2035

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“This conservatively assumes Model 2 at breakeven despite management expecting the car to cost $20K to make and be priced at $25K (ex-$7,500 to the consumer for the IRA credit). We value Cars at $78B using a 2.5x mass market OEM multiple (up from 2.0x) on 2024E EBITDA. Lowering Licensing but Autonomy [is] still key. OEMs have been pulling back on organic investments, and ordinarily, this should be viewed constructively for FSD licensing,” noted the investment bank.  

Elon Musk discussed the state of Full Self-Driving licenses during the TSLA Q4 and Full Year 2023 earnings call. 

“I really think lots of car companies should be asking for FSD licenses. And we’ve has some tentative conversations, but I think they don’t believe it’s real quite yet,” said Musk. 

Meanwhile, Ford CEO Jim Farley advises people to stop looking at FSD and Tesla when it comes to the future of the automotive industry. 

If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via X @Writer_01001101.

Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

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Elon Musk teases Tesla Roadster unveiling once again

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tesla roadster
Credit: Tesla

Elon Musk continues to tease the unveiling event for the Tesla Roadster, a continuing trend that has grown into a bigger game of “When” for fans who have been waiting years for the car to finally enter production.

A video shared on X of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that Musk appeared on last year, teasing the Roadster unveiling, was shared once again on the social media platform. The poster said the Roadster event will be “unforgettable.”

Musk agreed:

The timing is interesting because just yesterday, Musk said that we will be getting flying cars, and for years, Tesla has hinted that it could develop a SpaceX cold gas thruster package that would help the car float or fly for a short period of time.

It would be reasonable to assume Tesla’s major delays with this unveiling event are likely caused by the company’s need to break the rules and push the envelope on nearly everything. Last July, Lars Moravy, Tesla’s VP of Vehicle Engineering, said:

“Roadster is definitely in development. We did talk about it last Sunday night. We are gearing up for a super cool demo. It’s going to be mind blowing. We showed Elon some cool demos last week of the tech we’ve been working on and he got a little excited.”

The latest updates that Tesla has given us are that the Roadster is in design development, and it did have several potential dates for an unveiling event this year, including April. It was then pushed to August.

However, there are no clues as to when Tesla will be ready, and fans are certainly getting frustrated with the delays.

For what it is worth, Franz von Holzhausen told Jay Leno this week that the event would be “very soon.”

We sure hope.

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Tesla’s driverless Cybercab just passed a big test with State Governor

Florida’s governor rode Tesla’s Cybercab at a closed test track and called the experience impressive.

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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis rode in a Tesla Cybercab on a closed test track this week and came away impressed, posting on X that the vehicle “successfully navigated all hazards — a kid running into the street, a crash with police stopping traffic, a Model S cutting us off, etc.” He called the ride “impressive.”

The stop was part of a broader event Monday at SunTrax, a 775 acre state owned proving ground in Auburndale that Florida built specifically to test autonomous and connected vehicles before they reach public roads. Standing next to a gold Cybercab, DeSantis described the car in plain terms: “You go in there and you just sit. You have a screen. There’s no steering wheel, no pedals. Clearly these things could be very beneficial.”

DeSantis paired the praise with a caveat that has followed autonomous vehicles since the category existed. “You don’t want to be in an autonomous vehicle and it drives you into a ditch. That would not be good,” he said, framing safety validation as the gate before wider deployment.

SunTrax, the 2.25 mile oval which the state calls the only high speed autonomous vehicle test track in the Southeast, can simulate rain, pedestrian crossings, hills and crowded urban conditions at highway speeds, letting companies push a car past what an early public rollout would risk. Tesla, Waymo and Beep all use the facility, and Florida’s regulatory approach, among the most permissive for autonomous vehicles in the country, doesn’t require a human operator inside a fully autonomous car.

Tesla has reason to want the blessing of Florida and states beyond, as the Cybercab entered volume production at Gigafactory Texas this spring and has since self certified as SAE Level 4 under Texas law. Public road testing so far has kept a safety monitor in the passenger seat, and Florida is where Tesla has been expanding its existing Model Y based Robotaxi service instead, adding Miami in July and then Orlando and Tampa two weeks later. A closed track endorsement from a sitting governor doesn’t change any of that, but it does put Tesla’s newest hardware in front of a state that has already shown it will move fast on rules.

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Tesla wins three-year standoff against Sweden’s IF Metall union

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Credit: Tesla Europe and Middle East | X

Sweden’s IF Metall union has announced that it is ending all protests against Tesla, effective immediately.

The union said in a statement this morning:

“There seems to be no limits to the length Tesla would go to keep unions out of their operations. Unfortunately, they have managed to pay their way out in Sweden. At least that has given the former IF Metall members more money in their pocket, but the insecurity of not having a union or a collective agreement still remains.”

IF Metall has been after Tesla in Sweden for the past three years, attempting to push unionized operations into its factories. Tesla, on the other hand, has given its employees the chance to unionize in various markets. However, the organization says that Tesla has “bought out all of its striking members.”

“Today, we end our industrial action against Tesla. We do so because it can no longer have an effect – not because our principles have changed,” a written statement said.

Over the past three years, IF Metall has definitely been a thorn in the side of Tesla and its operations in Sweden. The primary strike started in October 2023, when IF Metall members at Tesla’s Swedish Service Centers refused to work.

IF Metall chair to Elon Musk: “Give us a chance” as Tesla Sweden strike hits 2 years

Strikes extended to blockades and work stoppages at non-Tesla-owned repair shops that service Teslas. This limited and stopped anything related to warranties, transport damage, and other work on Teslas ending, eliminating work arounds for customers.

Sympathy strikes followed, as postal workers, dock workers, electricians, and other tradesmen stopped working. Add in lawsuits and other pressures, and you get the full scope of what strategies the union has used against Tesla over the past several years.

But now, it’s all over.

“We will continue to defend the right of workers to organize. We will continue to fight for collective bargaining. And we will continue to stand in solidarity with workers and trade unions facing similar challenges elsewhere – just as you have stood with us,” IF Metall said.

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