Research archive for TSLA

Tesla recently applied to supply electricity to British homes. In the UK, power is generated by certain companies, the grid is owned by another company, and then many more companies sell the power to customers. Tesla is applying to be part of the final leg of the journey. It could take the regulator around 9 months to approve the application.

Tesla may be under pressure trying to sell cars but they certainly have a lot of other things on the go. Self driving cars, robots, renewable energy and robotaxis are well-publicised but did you know that they recently opened a diner in West Hollywood?

Houston, we have a problem. One of our recommended portfolio stocks is in trouble. We own Tesla because it's an iconic company that pioneered modern electric vehicles and is run by one of the most innovative people alive, Elon Musk. Unfortunately, it's down over 30% from its December 2024 peak, while the broader market is smashing through all-time highs.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump have gone from being BFFs to enemies. Musk has been very critical of Trump's pending tax bill, which will add trillions of extra debt to the already large US debt pile. If I were Musk, I would also be bleak. He gave up months of his life to run DOGE, to reduce US spending, and with one bloated budget proposal, all that work gets undone. Over the last few days, Musk's posts have become increasingly vocal, prompting Trump to respond. Things got personal.

Depreciation is the silent cost of owning a car. The day you take ownership, there is a 20% loss in value due to VAT. Over time, the value of the vehicle also decreases with age, mileage and people's perception of long-term maintenance costs.

Tesla delivered some horrible numbers on Tuesday night, but the stock still closed up 5.4% yesterday. The jump higher was solely based on Elon Musk saying that he will pull back from his role at DOGE and focus more time on Tesla. You can see how closely Musk is tied to the company's forecast for the future.

Last week Tesla released some underwhelming numbers. For the whole of 2024, revenue rose just 1% to $97.7 billion. For the fourth quarter, Tesla reported revenue of $25.7 billion, only 2% higher than the same quarter the year before. The automotive division went backwards by 8%. All the heavy lifting was done by the energy generation and storage division, which grew by 113%, and services, which grew by 31%.

After Trump won back the presidency last week, markets shot higher. But some shares did better than others. Tesla surged 15% on the day. Elon Musk was a very visible supporter of Trump's campaign, but does that justify a $120 billion plus increase in Tesla's market cap? Perhaps not, but there are various theories as to how the Trump administration could be beneficial to Tesla.

Take a look at the image below from the latest Tesla shareholder deck. It shows the cumulative number of miles driven by Tesla owners using the FSD (full self-driving) software under supervision. The red section is what was driven using the new version 12 software. They crossed 2 billion miles in September.

On Wednesday after the close, Tesla released their third-quarter results. After a muted reaction to their Robotaxi launch, expectations weren't exactly peaking. Fortunately, the numbers impressed, and the stock initially shot up 12% in after-market trade and pushed higher during the day to a 22% gain!

The much anticipated Tesla Robotaxi event happened on Thursday night. As expected, the new vehicle doesn't have a steering wheel or pedals, and will cost less than $30 000. Tesla calls it a 'Cybercab' and Musk said the new car would be 'available before 2027'.

On Thursday Tesla will unveil its robotaxi product at an event in Los Angeles. The new vehicle will be called a Cybercab. It will be able to drive itself and be summoned on a Tesla ride-hailing platform. The design might look like the mock-up in the picture here.

Tesla had quarterly results out a week ago, and they were patchy, to say the least. This is a stock that hit an all-time high above $400, and is now trading around $225 per share.

Tesla reported a smaller-than-expected 5% drop in second-quarter vehicle deliveries, thanks to price cuts and sales incentives. They delivered 443 956 vehicles, beating Wall Street's estimate of 438 019. Shares jumped over 10.2%, hitting a five-month high.

Tesla is one of the worst performers in the S&P 500 this year. We've had a number of clients email us, saying that they are tired of all the negative news articles about Elon Musk. The sentiment tide seems to have turned positive lately, and the stock is up 8% over the last week.