On Friday, Elon Musk, the CEO, announced on X, his social media platform,
that Tesla’s robotaxi will debut on August 8.
Following this announcement, Tesla’s shares increased to 5.1% in after-hours trading in New York.
Despite this boost, Tesla’s stock has experienced a 34% drop this year up to the end of trading on Friday.
Before this robotaxi news was shared by Musk, he was surpassed by Mark Zuckerberg,
the CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., as the world’s third wealthiest individual.
Fully Autonomous Vehicle
Tesla has always highlighted a fully autonomous vehicle, which it first promised investors in 2019,
as a critical component of its ambitious valuation.
The company has recently introduced the latest iteration of its driver assistance system,
marketed as FSD or Full Self-Driving, to its customers.
Tesla mentioned that its upcoming vehicle platform will feature a more affordable car and a dedicated robotaxi.
Although there have been hints about both, prototypes for neither have been revealed.
Musk’s recent tweet suggests that the robotaxi is taking precedence over the more affordable car,
although both will be developed on the same platform.
Earlier on Friday, Reuters reported that Tesla had abandoned plans for a cheaper vehicle,
Instead, they opt to allocate more resources towards the robotaxi’s development.
Musk countered these reports by accusing “Reuters of lying,” without providing further details.
Hybrid Models
In the first quarter, Tesla produced 46,561 more vehicles than it managed to deliver, leading to price reductions.
The shift in US consumer preference towards hybrid models over
pricier EVs has prompted many manufacturers to reconsider their electrification strategies.
Musk’s bold product launches have generated excitement among Tesla’s customers and investors,
bypassing traditional advertising methods. However, not all launches have been successful;
The Cybertruck, unveiled amid much fanfare in November 2019, faced significant production delays,
and its gradual market introduction.
Tesla opens the year with its worst performance: The year 2023 was the best year for Tesla, as the company achieved great success,
and its value doubled within a year, but it seems that the year 2024 will not be as good as 2023 for Tesla,
as the company opened the new year with the worst performance ever.
Tesla lost $98 billion of its market value at the beginning of the year,
which led to Tesla stock being ranked eighth worst-performing after it had been eighth best-performing on the S&P 500 index.
The electric car manufacturer was exposed to a lot of negative news, which led to it losing more than $94 billion in the first two weeks of the year 2024.
The company reduced the prices of its Chinese-made cars in addition to news about labour costs.
The company is also facing a sudden change from the car rental company Hertz Global. Holdings.
And all this is due to the decline in demand for electric cars in the United States.
Jeffrey Osborne, an analyst at Cowen, said that what scares and worries investors most about Tesla is the decline in growth,
what increases these fears is the price reduction in China because it seems like a race to the bottom in the issue of manufacturing electric cars
amid intense competition in the electric car market.”
The largest loss since the IPO
The blow that Tesla received at the beginning of the year is considered the biggest blow
that the company has suffered in a similar period in recent years, since the year 2010 when it went public.
Tesla shares have declined by 12% since the beginning of January,
the worst since 2016, when the company lost 14% of its value in the first two weeks of the year.
What made matters worse is that the prospects for an imminent change in the company do not bode well.
Starting in early 2023, the company reduced car prices to increase demand, but the result was opposite to the company’s expectations.
The company’s gross profit margin decreased in the third quarter to 16.3% compared to 27.9% in the same period last year.
Another thing that exacerbated the problems was that Tesla was forced to change the destination of its shipments
due to tension in the Red Sea and fear of attacks on the shipments.
It also stopped most of the production operations at its factory in Berlin from January 29 until February 11, according to an official statement.
Tesla forecast
Tesla had warned of a decline in demand for electric cars when it issued its third-quarter earnings report,
and then car manufacturers and suppliers around the world expressed their pessimism,
as the majority of electric car manufacturers had retreated from expanding their business.
In December 2023, the company announced car delivery numbers in the fourth quarter.
Although the numbers were more than analysts’ expectations, the company came in second place after the Chinese company BYD in terms of sales of global electric companies.
Elon Musk’s wealth
Elon Musk received a severe personal blow.
The wealth of Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, decreased at the beginning of the year by $23 billion, according to the Bloomberg Rich Index.
Last year, Musk returned to the top of the Bloomberg Wealth Index, surpassing Bernard Arnault,
but it seems that Jeff Bezos is approaching the lead with a wealth worth $179 billion, compared to Musk’s wealth of $206 billion as of Friday.
Elon Musk’s wealth consists of his 13% stake in Tesla, in addition to 304 million exercisable stock options,
in addition to his ownership of 425 shares of SpaceX, which is worth about $53 billion, according to the Bloomberg Wealth Index.
Tesla is in the lead
Despite everything mentioned above, Tesla is still at the forefront of the world’s transition from gas-powered cars to electric cars.
This is because it is superior and advanced over its competitors.
Although China’s BYD surpasses Tesla in car sales, Tesla is still first in terms of profits and revenues,
while Tesla is the leading company in selling electric cars in the United States.
The Chinese company is still outside the United States market, as BYD has not sold any cars in the United States.
For many reasons, one of Tesla’s biggest problems may be the previous success it achieved and the hope resulting from this success.
Because investors accepted Tesla shares, the company’s market value has risen,
making it the largest company in the field of electric car manufacturing compared to the rest of the car manufacturing companies in the world.
Despite the ideal pricing of the stock, it was subject to violent reactions due to negative news.
Many Tesla fans and supporters believe that Tesla cars cannot be compared to traditional cars.
For them, the company’s true and ultimate value is in the future. Tesla is looking to develop the first self-driving car.
The problem is that Tesla has been looking forward to this for years, and according to experts,
developing technology for Autonomous driving takes a lot of time to be ready.
