Investor's Corner
Tesla registers 6,100 new Model 3 VINs amid continued production push
Tesla has registered 6,160 new Model 3 VINs, amid the company’s continued production ramp for the compact electric car. With the latest batch of new vehicle identification numbers, Tesla has filed a total of 62,557 Model 3 to date.
The recent registrations were shared on Twitter by @Model3VINs, a group that tracks Tesla’s filings for the vehicle. According to the group, the latest batch of Model 3 VINs comprised of Long Range RWD cars — a stark contrast to the 2,237 vehicle identification numbers registered by the company last week, which were largely dual motor AWD.
#Tesla registered 6,160 new #Model3 VINs. Highest VIN is 62557. https://t.co/qZjb57aSMM
— Model 3 VINs (@Model3VINs) July 1, 2018
Tesla’s VIN registrations for the Model 3 had seen a meteoric rise since May, when the electric car and energy company started filing large batches of the vehicle identification numbers. In May, for example, Tesla registered more than 17,900 new Model 3 VINs — a figure that took the company until March 23 to accomplish since starting the car’s production last July 2017.
Particularly impressive this past June, however, were VIN batches that corresponded to filings for the dual motor AWD variant of the compact electric car. Earlier this year, Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would probably start production of the dual motor AWD and Performance Model 3 sometime in July, when the company has attained a steady production rate of 5,000 Model 3 per week. Midway through last month, however, Musk revealed on Twitter that the first Model 3 Performance has rolled off from a newly-built assembly line, which was set up in a sprung structure on the grounds of the Fremont factory.
The latest Model 3 VIN registrations come amid Tesla’s announcement that it has effectively hit a production rate of 5,000 Model 3 per week. The milestone, which has eluded Tesla since the vehicle started production last year, was teased over the last few weeks of June. In the weeks leading up to the end of Q2 2018, for one, sightings of overflow lots filled with Model 3 were shared by Tesla enthusiasts online. Tweets from workers at Fremont and Gigafactory 1 also teased that the company would hit its target by the end of the quarter.
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- [Credit: Tesla Daily/Twitter]
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- [Credit: The Tesla Life/Twitter]
Even before Elon Musk confirmed the news on Twitter, social media posts from the company’s workers in Fremont teased that the 5,000-a-week Model 3 target had been achieved. Among these was a photograph of a banner being signed by workers at the Fremont factory with the words “Model 3 5K Club” on it. Pictures of workers celebrating at the factory grounds and a Model 3 labeled as “5000th” also made the rounds in social media. Not long after this, Elon Musk himself congratulated the Tesla team on Twitter for producing 7,000 vehicles in one week. A leaked email from Musk later specified that the 7,000-vehicle output was comprised of 5,000 Model 3 and 2,000 Model S and Model X.
7000 cars, 7 days
♥️ Tesla Team ♥️— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2018
The announcement of Tesla’s production milestone for the Model 3 appears to have provided a boost to investors’ sentiments. As of writing, Tesla shares (NASDAQ:TSLA) are trading up 6.28% during pre-market, at $365.44 per share.
Elon Musk
Tesla locks in Elon Musk’s top problem solver as it enters its most ambitious era
The generous equity award was disclosed by the electric vehicle maker in a recent regulatory filing.
Tesla has granted Senior Vice President of Automotive Tom Zhu more than 520,000 stock options, tying a significant portion of his compensation to the company’s long-term performance.
The generous equity award was disclosed by the electric vehicle maker in a recent regulatory filing.
Tesla secures top talent
According to a Form 4 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Tom Zhu received 520,021 stock options with an exercise price of $435.80 per share. Since the award will not fully vest until March 5, 2031, Zhu must remain at Tesla for more than five years to realize the award’s full benefit.
Considering that Tesla shares are currently trading at around the $445 to $450 per share level, Zhu will really only see gains in his equity award if Tesla’s stock price sees a notable rise over the years, as noted in a Sina Finance report.
Still, even at today’s prices, Zhu’s stock award is already worth over $230 million. If Tesla reaches the market cap targets set forth in Elon Musk’s 2025 CEO Performance Award, Zhu would become a billionaire from this equity award alone.
Tesla’s problem solver
Zhu joined Tesla in April 2014 and initially led the company’s Supercharger rollout in China. Later that year, he assumed the leadership of Tesla’s China business, where he played a central role in Tesla’s localization efforts, including expanding retail and service networks, and later, overseeing the development of Gigafactory Shanghai.
Zhu’s efforts helped transform China into one of Tesla’s most important markets and production hubs. In 2023, Tesla promoted Zhu to Senior Vice President of Automotive, placing him among the company’s core global executives and expanding his influence beyond China. He has since garnered a reputation as the company’s problem solver, being tapped by Elon Musk to help ramp Giga Texas’s vehicle production.
With this in mind, Tesla’s recent filing seems to suggest that the company is locking in its top talent as it enters its newest, most ambitious era to date. As could be seen in the targets of Elon Musk’s 2025 pay package, Tesla is now aiming to be the world’s largest company by market cap, and it is aiming to achieve production levels that are unheard of. Zhu’s talents would definitely be of use in this stage of the company’s growth.
Tesla analyst Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley teased the company’s dominance in its self-driving initiative, stating that its lead over competitors is “not even close.”
Percoco recently overtook coverage of Tesla stock from Adam Jonas, who had covered the company at Morgan Stanley for years. Percoco is handling Tesla now that Jonas is covering embodied AI stocks and no longer automotive.
His first move after grabbing coverage was to adjust the price target from $410 to $425, as well as the rating from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight.’
Percoco’s new note regarding Tesla highlights the company’s extensive lead in self-driving and autonomy projects, something that it has plenty of competition in, but has established its prowess over the past few years.
He writes:
“It’s not even close. Tesla continues to lead in autonomous driving, even as Nvidia rolls out new technology aimed at helping other automakers build driverless systems.”
Percoco’s main point regarding Tesla’s advantage is the company’s ability to collect large amounts of training data through its massive fleet, as millions of cars are driving throughout the world and gathering millions of miles of vehicle behavior on the road.
This is the main point that Percoco makes regarding Tesla’s lead in the entire autonomy sector: data is King, and Tesla has the most of it.
One big story that has hit the news over the past week is that of NVIDIA and its own self-driving suite, called Alpamayo. NVIDIA launched this open-source AI program last week, but it differs from Tesla’s in a significant fashion, especially from a hardware perspective, as it plans to use a combination of LiDAR, Radar, and Vision (Cameras) to operate.
Percoco said that NVIDIA’s announcement does not impact Morgan Stanley’s long-term opinions on Tesla and its strength or prowess in self-driving.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
And, for what it’s worth, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even said some remarkable things about Tesla following the launch of Alpamayo:
“I think the Tesla stack is the most advanced autonomous vehicle stack in the world. I’m fairly certain they were already using end-to-end AI. Whether their AI did reasoning or not is somewhat secondary to that first part.”
Percoco reiterated both the $425 price target and the ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla shares.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) just got a price target boost from its biggest bear, Gordon Johnson of GLJ Research, who raised his expected trading level to one that is 95 percent lower than its current trading level.
Johnson pushed his Tesla price target from $19.05 to $25.28 on Wednesday, while maintaining the ‘Sell’ rating that has been present on the stock for a long time. GLJ has largely been recognized as the biggest skeptic of Elon Musk’s company, being particularly critical of the automotive side of things.
Tesla has routinely been called out by Johnson for negative delivery growth, what he calls “weakening demand,” and price cuts that have occurred in past years, all pointing to them as desperate measures to sell its cars.
Johnson has also said that Tesla is extremely overvalued and is too reliant on regulatory credits for profitability. Other analysts on the bullish side recognize Tesla as a company that is bigger than just its automotive side.
Many believe it is a leader in autonomous driving, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, who believes Tesla will have a widely successful 2026, especially if it can come through on its targets and schedules for Robotaxi and Cybercab.
Justifying the price target this week, Johnson said that the revised valuation is based on “reality rather than narrative.” Tesla has been noted by other analysts and financial experts as a stock that trades on narrative, something Johnson obviously disagrees with.
Dan Nathan, a notorious skeptic of the stock, turned bullish late last year, recognizing the company’s shares trade on “technicals and sentiment.” He said, “From a trading perspective, it looks very interesting.”
Tesla bear turns bullish for two reasons as stock continues boost
Johnson has remained very consistent with this sentiment regarding Tesla and his beliefs regarding its true valuation, and has never shied away from putting his true thoughts out there.
Tesla shares closed at $431.40 today, about 95 percent above where Johnson’s new price target lies.
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Tesla locks in Elon Musk’s top problem solver as it enters its most ambitious era
