This past week was another busy week with Tesla news, and this is when Tesla Weekly shines by saving you time so you can keep updated in just a single email.
The highlight of the week was an interview by Elon Musk on Fox Business News (see below) where he mentioned that Tesla is on track to meet Q3 guidance of 7800 vehicles delivered, is looking to ship 15-20k Model X's next year, and will likely sell 500k cars/year by 2020.
Model S
Speed Assist and Lane Departure Warning Leaked
Screenshots of a new Speed Assist and Lane Departure Warning features were posted on teslamotorsclub.com (via user brianman). These features look very similar to what Mobileye offers except it's integrated into the Model S. These features have not been announced by Tesla yet.
Tesla wins court case in Massachusetts
The highest court in Massachusetts has thrown out a lawsuit aimed at blocking Tesla from selling its cars directly to consumers.
TSLA
TSLA Analysts Activity for Past Week
This past week we saw a flurry of analysts activity surrounding TSLA.
1. On Monday Adam Jonas (analyst with Morgan Stanley) released a strangely odd note where he shared that TSLA's stock price was "a bit ahead of itself" and discussed some challenges/risks ahead for Tesla. The note, combined with a broader sell-off of high-growth stocks, led to a single-day $25 drop in TSLA's stock price.
2. ISI group initiated coverage on TSLA with a $320 price target and a buy rating.
3. Global Equities Research re-affirmed their $385 price target.
4. Ben Kallo (RW Baird) was on Bloomberg radio discussing TSLA.
5. James Albertine (Stifel Nicolaus) was on CNBC discussing TSLA.
6. Barclay's Brian Johnson released a cautionary note expressing doubts that TSLA would meet its' Q4 guidance.
7. This morning Patrick Archambault (Goldman Sachs) issued a note reaffirming his $210 price target.
Corrections to Analysts Reports
With all the analyst activity this past week, I noticed several claims analysts were making that seemed fishy. So I reached out to Tesla's Investor Relations with the following questions and received replies from Tesla.
Q: "Trip Chowdry (Global Equities Research) said in a note today, 'Within next 3 months, Tesla is expected to launch 4-wheel drive Tesla Model S.' Is this speculation on his part, or did Tesla share some info with him regarding this?"
Q: "Adam Jonas (Morgan Stanley) shared in a note yesterday, 'China demand growth may be severely limited by Tesla's ability to develop thesupporting dealer and service infrastructure.' Is this speculation on his part, or did Tesla share some info with him regarding this?"
A: Tesla's Investor Relations reply: "Both are speculation. We've given no such indications."
Q: "James Albertine (Stifel Nicolaus) was on CNBC today and said that Tesla 'insources 75-80% of their production'. Can you confirm if it’s accurate that Tesla insources 75-80% of production?"
A: Tesla's Investor Relations reply: "Such stats are meaningless as there’s no way to accurately count something like this. His comment is based on our saying we do 'roughly 70-80% of the value conversion on Model S'".
Elon Musk
Elon Musk Interview in New York
Elon Musk was in New York this past week speaking at SolarCity's Inside Energy conference. While in New York he dropped by Fox Business News to do a 2 part interview. In this 7-min interview he shares Tesla is on track to meet Q3 guidance of 7800 cars, and also shares his conviction that Tesla can deliver 500k cars/year by 2020. He also shares that he expects to ship about 15-20k Model X vehicles next year.
Elon Musk on the next step for SpaceX, Nevada gigafactory
Elon shares more details on the SpaceX contract with NASA and also on job creation by Tesla's Gigafactory. This second video segment on Fox Business News is 7 minutes long.
SpaceX and Boeing Split $6.8 Billion Space Taxi Award
Great news for Elon's other company, SpaceX, as they win a big to shuttle human astronauts to the Space Station in coming years. The NASA contract is worth $2.6 billion for SpaceX and SpaceX hopes to launch human astronauts into space in 2017.