View of the “Tesla Straße 1” sign in front of the construction site of the Tesla factory. Tesla’s boss, Musk, visits the construction site of his electric car factory.
Jorg Carstensen | alliance image | Getty Images
Tesla has been giving way to Europe, with its Model 3 now only the fourth best-selling pure electric vehicle (EV) on the continent, according to recent statistics.
The European electric vehicle market is now the largest in the world in terms of sales after a 2020 increase that accompanied a drop in China. The proportion of new vehicle registrations that is electric is twice that of China and five times that of the US
In a note Wednesday, Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, said that the overtaking of Tesla by Renault, Volkswagen and Hyundai in recent months should have “alarmed” shareholders.
“Tesla will be successful and become one of the largest vehicle manufacturers of the future, but competition is heating up and that calls into question the market value of $ 805 billion,” Garnry said.
Shares of Tesla have risen more than 21% in the first two weeks of 2021, after soaring by more than 700% during 2020.
Garnry noted that November European vehicle registration figures showed that connectors, a combination of pure electric and hybrid vehicles, rose 198% year-on-year, while the total number of vehicle registrations on the continent fell 14 %.
Plug-in vehicles now account for around 10% of the global market share in Europe, with pure electric vehicles accounting for around 5.4%.
Garnry said customers had claimed Tesla sales tended to be stronger during the last month of the quarter, but noted sales fell in both October and November.
In the latest EV rankings, the Renault Zoe ranked first, followed closely by the VW ID.3, according to sales figures from the EV Volumes plug-in vehicle database. The Hyundai Kona was third ahead of the Tesla Model 3.
“While this should worry Tesla shareholders, it’s even more surprising that the Model S and X aren’t in the top 20 even though there are direct competing models on the list like Audi e-tron,” he added. Garnry.
Tesla was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
On Thursday, Renault’s new CEO, Luca de Meo, announced that the French carmaker would move to a more electric line, along with the construction of a battery plant in France with one of its suppliers.
“We will move from a car company that works with technology to a technology company that works with cars,” de Meo said.
China demands “heart and lungs”
Tesla shares are currently changing hands at $ 845 per share, and in a note Thursday, U.S. investment firm Wedbush Securities raised its price target to $ 950 per share from $ 715, with a bullish scenario of $ 1,250.
Wedbush cited an increase in demand for electric vehicles and China’s Model 3, which he defined as the “heart and lungs” of the case for owning Tesla shares.
“While there are more than 150 carmakers aggressively seeking the opportunity for electric vehicles around the world, right now in the electric vehicle market we believe it’s Tesla’s world and everyone is paying rent,” they said. in the note Wedbush analysts Daniel Ives and Strecker Backe.
They projected that by 2022, more than 40% of Tesla’s global delivery sales will come from China, while Democrats who control the three branches of U.S. government will provide a substantial boost to electric vehicles more broadly, given the climate agenda of President-elect Joe Biden.
“We believe China’s growth history is worth at least $ 100 per share in a safe-haven for Tesla, as this penetration of electric vehicles will increase significantly over the next 12 to 18 months, along with major battery innovations coming out of Giga 3 (Shanghai’s Tesla Factory), ”they said.