Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has stepped up his warnings on a You’re here a robo-taxi – if CEO Elon Musk makes it a priority and relegates a cheaper electric vehicle to the back seat.
The long-running Tesla bull told CNBC on Friday that such a decision would be a bet that could define the future of the electric vehicle manufacturer for the coming years.
A mainstream electric vehicle costing less than $30,000, which Wall Street has dubbed the Model 2, could account for 50 to 60 percent of Tesla’s incremental growth over the next two to three years, while a fully-fledged robo-taxi autonomous may not be ready. for another five to six years, Ives said.
“We’ve been through a lot of tough times for Musk and Tesla,” he added. “It’s up there.”
Ives, who often invented various metaphors and analogies for his hot versions of Tesla, warned that what was once a Cinderella story could turn into a “Nightmare on Elm Street.”
While he’s long-term bullish on robo-taxis and autonomous driving, it shouldn’t come at the expense of a Model 2.
“If this happened, it would be a disaster of epic proportions,” Ives said.
He predicted that Tesla would face a moment of truth on Tuesday, when quarterly results are released and Musk participates in a conference call with Wall Street analysts.
If Tesla-loyal bulls don’t like what they hear on the call, they might give up, as shelving a Model 2 would cause a huge hole in growth over the next few years, did he declare. Ives compared it to Apple CEO Tim Cook dropped a similar bombshell during his May 2 earnings conference call.
“It would be like Cook coming out on May 2 and saying, ‘OK, iPhone 15 – now look, we’re not going to have anything until iPhone 21. But trust us. Thanks for joining the conference call,’” Ives joked.
Granted, he said he remains bullish on Tesla in the long term, but said he also needs to hear Musk’s growth strategy in China, which accounts for 60-70% of Tesla’s growth. business but where fierce competition from electric vehicles has set up a “game”. of thrones.”
Musk’s credibility is also at stake, as the last earnings calls were “train wreck horror shows,” Ives added.
The stakes are high for Tesla after reporting quarterly delivery numbers 13% below Wall Street consensus estimates earlier this month. Meanwhile, Tesla stock is down 41% year to date.
In a research note last week, Ives said Musk and his company were going through a “Category 5 demand storm» in the electric vehicle market. He said Tesla is stuck between “two waves of growth”: the first led by the surge in sales of premium electric vehicles, and the second, which is expected to come from mainstream electric vehicles and robo-taxis. But despite this speech, “patience is starting to wear thin among investors”.
This comes after Reuters reported Earlier this month, Tesla abandoned plans to build the Model 2. Musk responded in a Tweetersimply saying that “Reuters is lying (again)”, without specifying.
Amid recent demand concerns, Musk also announcement It is on April 5 that Tesla will unveil its robot taxi at the end of summer.
In the meantime, Tesla lowers the prices of its electric vehicle in the United States on Friday evening, returning some models to their lowest levels on record. This comes after Musk announced 10% layoffs last week and recalled nearly 3,900 Cybertruck pickup trucks to repair or replace accelerator pedals that may cause unintended acceleration.
