How Tesla lost $99 billion in a day
Elon Musk’s big play to change the way we drive appears to have backfired and burnt Tesla’s bottom line.
Elon Musk’s highly-anticipated gamble on self-driving Robotaxis fell flat with his biggest fans.
Tesla’s share price fell sharply when the brand unveiled its vision for self-driving cars, wiping a staggering $99 billion ($US65.76 billion) from the company’s value in one day as its share price dropped from $US238.77 to $US217.80 earlier this month.
It’s not the sort of cash you find under the couch – unless you’re the world’s richest person.
Tesla’s Robotaxi shapes up as a two-door, two-seat driverless car intended to shuttle passengers from A to B.
Pitched as a personal vehicle for folks who don’t want to drive, or an electric autonomous taxi for ride-sharing fleets, the vehicle shapes up as a golden sliver of a promising future.
Except that investors didn’t buy it.
“Underwhelmed” Wall Street analysts ripped into the “perplexing” Tesla “toothless taxi” announcement for a “lack of detail”, an excessive focus on “branding and marketing”, and said they were “disappointed with the substance and detail of the presentation”.
It speaks volumes that share prices for rival ride-sharing giants Uber and Lyft rose in the wake of Tesla’s announcement.
2024 has been a tricky year for Elon Musk’s electric car brand, which was forced to slash the prices of its Model Y and Model 3 EVs to compete with a looming tide of battery-powered rivals.
New metal from the likes of Leapmotor, Deepal, Xpeng, Zeekr, Smart and others threatens to eat away at Tesla’s hold on the electric vehicle market.
But the news isn’t all bad for Tesla.
The company bounced back from its Robotaxi loss this week by announcing strong profits for the last quarter, and forecasting a 20 to 30 per cent increase in sales next year.
It was exactly what investors needed to hear.
Tesla’s share price rose by 12 per cent following the announcement, raising the company’s stock market value by $120.5 billion ($US80 billion).
More than enough to undo the damage done by the Robotaxi.
Originally published as How Tesla lost $99 billion in a day
Auto giant slashes EV sales targets
An Aussie car industry boss says manufacturers must ‘be realistic’ about the nation’s appetite for electric cars.
Aussie state with worst drivers exposed
Damning statistics which uncover the state with Australia’s worst drivers prove its not how you learn but where that matters.