Tesla (TSLACEO Elon Musk hinted during Tuesday’s shareholder meeting that new Tesla products are coming, is open to trying announcements, confirmed that a Cybertruck delivery event will take place this year and also warned that the EV giant is not immune to global economic challenges.
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The meeting took place at the Tesla factory in Austin on Tuesday night, and came just days after Musk announced there would be a new person taking to Twitter, signaling to TSLA shareholders that he might have more time to spend on the global electric car giant.
There was a level of uncertainty at this gathering, as Tesla likely chose to reveal new details about the Cybertruck, a revamped Model 3, next-gen EV, updates on battery developments and more. However, Musk and Tesla executives have remained mostly silent on these topics.
Tesla’s CEO emphasized Tuesday that the next 12 months will be “challenging” and that “Tesla is not immune to the global economic environment.”
Meanwhile, Musk did not announce any new products Tuesday, saying “this is not the time.” However, the Tesla boss added that two projects are in the pipeline.
“I just want to confirm that we’re actually building a new product,” Musk said. “There are two new products that I think you’ll be very excited about.”
Musk has also expressed his openness to running ads for Tesla and shot down rumors that he is stepping down as CEO of Tesla.
“It’s not like that,” he said.
Tesla shares jumped 1.6% early Wednesday. During market trading on Tuesday, the TSLA Index rose 0.1% to 166.52.
Tesla shares have lost about half of their market value since their last annual meeting in August 2022.
Tesla Stock: Cybertruck Update
Musk also confirmed on Tuesday that the Cybertruck delivery event will take place later in 2023.
“Sorry for the delay but we will finally start delivering Cybertrucks later this year,” he said.
But this is not really new.
Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Tesla reported that the Cybertruck remains “on track to begin production later this year” with plans for a delivery event in Q3.
The Tesla CEO recently teased a Cybertruck, driving it through a groundbreaking ceremony at the Corpus Christi lithium refinery.
Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Tesla is about to begin trial production of a refurbished Model 3 in Shanghai. However, it is not clear when real production will begin in China and later in the United States
Since Tesla Investor Day in early March, the company has been silent about its next-generation car, which will be produced at its new factory in Mexico.
Musk continues to emphasize self-driving
Musk has long touted Tesla’s fully self-driving technology and the potential value it brings to the brand.
Musk said on Tuesday that fully autonomous driving would be “much better” than a person driving a car. Musk also claimed that the ability to retrofit millions of cars to make them move from manual to self-driving would be “the biggest increase in asset value in history.”
The Tesla CEO previously said that “the value of a self-driving car is enormous,” during its first-quarter earnings call.
Musk also stressed that the improvements in fully autonomous driving are “really very exciting.”
“The trend is very clear toward full autonomy, and I hesitate to say that, but I think we’ll do it this year,” Musk said earlier, referring to self-driving vehicles.
Musk tweeted on May 8 that Tesla will roll out a one-month free trial to all North American cars when fully self-driving is “super smooth (not just safe).”
The annual meeting follows the quarterly report
On April 19, Tesla reported a significant drop in first-quarter earnings while revenue missed sights. Profit margins for the global electric car giant also fell below 20% as the company implemented an aggressive price-cutting strategy in the early part of 2023. Tesla reported a 24% increase in revenue to $23.33 billion on earnings of 85 cents per share, down 20%. compared to 2022.
Total EV gross profit was $4.5 billion, with Tesla gross margin of 19.3%, down from 23.8% in the fourth quarter and 29.1% a year earlier.
Gross profit margins for automobiles, excluding regulatory approvals and lease contracts, fell to 18.3% from 23.8% in the fourth quarter. That’s still less than the 20% gross margin “floor” that Tesla previously targeted.
Musk told analysts that Tesla is “comfortable” with its 2023 production goal of 1.8 million. However, he downplayed the 2 million production number it used at the end of the fourth quarter.
“These are turbulent times,” Musk said. “From a production standpoint, if all goes well, we’ve got 2 million cars here. But that’s the upside.”
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Tesla stock
The electric vehicle giant is up about 67% from its January low, but has fallen significantly since the end of March. Tesla stock is still below the 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
If Tesla stock continues to recover, it is likely to form a double bottom base with a buy point of 207.89. But which direction the stock might go is still uncertain.
The TSLA stock bulls can spy aggressive entries, such as the 50-day line or perhaps a downward sloping trendline from the top of the three-month consolidation. However, the stakes are still high, especially in the current market.
Tesla stock ranks eighth in IBD Automotive Group. TSLA has a composite rating of 56 out of 99. The stock also has a relative strength rating of 19. The EPS rating for Tesla stock is 93 out of 99.
Please follow Kit Norton on Twitter @tweet for more coverage.
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