Investor's Corner
Tesla’s market disruption may lead to healthy slice of global auto market: Mizuho
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is expected to control 10% of the global automotive market in the coming years, analysts from Tokyo-based Mizuho Bank said in a recent note to investors. Tesla’s disruption of the global automotive market through its high-tech and affordable electric vehicles could ultimately lead to the company producing 1-out-of-10 cars on the road in the coming years.
Over the past few years, the transition to electrification in passenger vehicles has accelerated greatly, mostly due to Tesla’s mainstream success as an automaker. The company’s influence on the global automotive market has been identified as disruptive and has caused OEMs like GM, Ford, and others to consider rolling out new electrified models, a plan that has culminated in some of the largest car companies in the world to change their long-term supply chain plans. Instead of focusing on purchasing combustion engines, these legacy automotive companies are opting for battery cells instead, making lofty but sufficient manufacturing goals that hint toward a future of fully electrified fleets.
Tesla has captured a considerable portion of the battery electric vehicle (BEV) market over the past four years, mostly due to its introduction of mass-market EVs that are affordable and land around the price point of an average new car in 2021, according to Kelley Blue Book. While Tesla has raised prices on many of its models over the past several months as the company, among others, combats a global shortage of semiconductors and other critical parts of an EV’s DNA, Tesla still holds the reputation for the most advanced electric vehicles on the market at the most competitive prices. For the performance, range, and software that owners receive with Teslas, there isn’t a much better bang for your buck.
Analysts at Mizuho Bank agree, according to a note that the firm sent to investors. While Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh identifies the growing global EV market and Tesla’s domination of it, he is aware of incoming competitors. Not signaling that Tesla will encounter tremendous disruption from competitors, new or old, Rakesh’s money would likely be on Tesla if this were a betting situation.
The analyst wrote (via Seeking Alpha):
“Total BEV penetration is at 7.4% in Europe and 6.8% in China, while the U.S. lags at 1.9%. The up and comers still face challenges with VW sales lagging, while GM appears to be getting traction from its ~ $4K HongGuang Mini EV in China.”
Tesla held around 24% of the global BEV market in Q1, mostly due to impressive sales figures of the Model 3 and Model Y combined with Tesla’s continuing trend of Quarter-over-Quarter growth. While this is impressive, the real disruption will occur when Tesla starts to take a substantial slice of the overall automotive market. Rakesh believes the company could achieve up to 10% of the global automotive market, taking more gas-powered engines off the road than many could imagine.
Mizuho is bullish on the idea that TSLA could gain further traction in the EV market by leaving behind legacy companies and newcomers to the BEV sector due to its overwhelming lead in battery tech and autonomous driving developments. The company’s considerable lead in both of these categories makes it a prime candidate to begin even more disruption of the global automotive market. Mizuho believes Tesla could achieve at least 10% of the total market share in the coming years.
Rakesh is ranked 93 out of 7,551 analysts on TipRanks and holds a five-star rating with an average return of 26.3% and a success rate of 69%. He holds Tesla with an $820.00 price target and a “Buy” rating for the stock.
Disclosure: Joey Klender is a TSLA Shareholder.
Investor's Corner
Tesla stock closes at all-time high on heels of Robotaxi progress
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.