Investor's Corner
Tesla can apply for Bipartisan bill funding after opening Superchargers to other OEMs
Tesla can apply for a portion of the $7.5 billion funding that is set aside for electric vehicle chargers in the recently finalized Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill after it opens its Supercharger network to other manufacturers.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
For a few weeks, Teslarati has been following the progress of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill due to its inclusion of the possible funding of certain electric vehicle programs. After revealing that $7.5 billion of the $1 trillion bill would be set aside for expanding the electric vehicle charging network, the details of who or what would be eligible remained unclear. However, upon the finalizing of the bill, yesterday and its imminent send-over to Senate members later this week, the language of the bill is now revealed, and it may be one of the reasons Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been pondering the possibility of opening the EV charging network to other vehicles, as he announced last week.
Credit: Tesla
Tesla will begin opening its expansive Supercharger network in the United States before the end of the year. Aiming to increase the number of available EV charging options to third-party companies, Tesla owners will have a distinct advantage in charging at the company-owned chargers, while other car owners will have limitations in terms of time and output. However, the opening of the Supercharger network allows owners of EVs that are not produced by Tesla access to a more broad network of charging options, which could make EVs a more appealing option for those who worry about charge points.
How the $7.5 billion pie will be cut
According to the Bill published by the Senate earlier today, several terms need to be met to qualify for the funding. These include:
(1) Standards – Electric vehicle charging infrastructure installed using funds provided under this title shall provide, at a minimum–
“(A) non-proprietary charging connectors that meet applicable industry safety standards; and “(B) open access to payment methods that are available to all members of the public to ensure secure, convenient equal access to the electric vehicle charging infrastructure that shall not be limited by membership to a particular payment provider.”
On page 2,646 of the bill, the language states:
Provided further, That funds made available under this paragraph in this Act may be used to contract with a private entity for acquisition and installation of publicly accessible electric vehicle charging infrastructure and the private entity may pay the non-Federal share of the cost of a project funded under this paragraph: Provided further, That funds made available under this paragraph in this Act shall be for projects directly related to the charging of a vehicle and only for electric vehicle charging infrastructure that is open to the general public or to authorized commercial motor vehicle operators from more than one company.
Essentially, any private entity that has an open charging infrastructure that is operable by more than one automaker can apply for some of the $7.5 billion funding.
Tesla opening the Supercharger network to other manufacturers
In late July, CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla would make its Supercharger network open to other EVs later in 2021. This will occur in more than one market, as Norway and Sweden are also set to benefit from the open availability starting 2022.
The full Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill is available below. I suggest using the “Find in Page” feature, as it is 2,702 pages long.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill by Joey Klender on Scribd
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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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