Tesla: 'Robotaxi' project boosts share price

(CercleFinance.com) - After falling almost 4% on Friday on rumors that the development of its entry-level model had been abandoned, Tesla bounced back about 5% on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, as investors welcomed the mention of a new project: the driverless "Robotaxi" vehicle.


According to press reports, Tesla has abandoned plans to launch a "low-cost" vehicle, priced at around $25,000, due to competition deemed too intense in this niche, which is currently dominated by its main competitor, China's BYD.

If true, this represents a major strategic U-turn and will raise questions about future volume growth, HSBC said on Monday morning.

The British bank recalls that the 'Next Gen' plan was supposed to fuel the American group's next phase of growth, from the end of 2025.

All our growth forecasts from 2026 onwards were based on this model, UBS added.

To put things into perspective, 20 percentage points of the 18% volume growth we were forecasting for 2026 came from the 'Next Gen' car project alone, they added.

Removing it from our estimates would result in slightly negative volume growth", continues UBS, which deduces that a cancellation of the Model 2 would be bad news for the share price.

UBS points out that it was expecting 2.35 million Model 2 deliveries by 2030, i.e. more than half of the automaker's total deliveries.

While acknowledging that the idea of a 'Robotaxi' could be more profitable, the research firm also notes that it would take longer to develop, would address a smaller market and would also be subject to intense regulatory inspections.

However, Canaccord Genuity believes that these developments show that Tesla is increasingly a bet on autonomous driving and the success of its hands-off driving (HUD) technology.

Take it or leave it, but Tesla has become a way to play the future of autonomous driving, stresses the Canadian broker. As far as we're concerned, we believe in it, the broker adds.


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