Toronto, Ontario — In this weekly Tuesday Ticker, Morgan Stanley warns that Tesla’s Oct. 10 event may fall short of wickedly high expectations. Plus, a Swedish-based battery firm faces further struggles.
Building suspense for stock’s sake
Tesla’s Robotaxi is set to debut at the company’s event on Oct. 10—but fans and analysts are worried the hype for this autonomous cab option may fall short of investor expectations, according to an article from Morgan Stanley.
“Heading into Tesla’s robotaxi event, we are, frankly, struggling to see how the day can live up to investors’ high expectations,” wrote Morgan Stanley in a note to investors.
The note states that all that’s in store for the event, as it’s known, is a Full Self-Driving v12.4 demo will take place, plus the option to take a ride in a Gen 1 Cybercab.
Elon Musk has previously touted the day to be “the most significant moment for Tesla” since the unveiling of the Model 3. The robotaxi launch was originally slated for August 8 but was pushed to October during Tesla’s Q2 2024 financial call. The Tesla CEO said the move was due to some “important changes” required.
“Moving [the robotaxi event] back a few months, allowed us to improve the robotaxi, as well as add in a couple of things for the product unveil,” said Musk during the July 23 earnings call.
As of 1:15 p.m. ET Monday, shares of Tesla traded at US$248.25 per share, up 12.64 percent in the last month and down 0.14 percent from Jan. 1.
Northvolt’s not sure
Northvolt, a European battery firm founded by two former Tesla executives announced Monday it would lay off 1,600 workers and scale back on its expansion plans.
The 1,600 employees laid off represent a fifth of the Swedish company’s workforce. The company has faced financial struggles as of late, with BMW pulling out of a US$2.1 billion order for Northvolt battery cells last June.
Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson said the company needed to make “tough decisions” in the face of headwinds in the automotive market and “wider industrial climate.”
“We now need to focus all energy and investments into our core business,” he wrote in a press release.
In addition to financial struggles, Northvolt has faced a series of deaths among workers at a factory in Northern Sweden, near the Arctic Circle.
Just last year Northvolt solicited proposals from investment banks for potential roles in a listing that could evaluate the company at approximately US$20 billion. At the time of writing, it remains unclear when, or if Northvolt will ever go public.
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