Cybercab hits the screen, and the Berlin factory's production reaches a record high! Behind the boom in Tesla (TSLA.US), Phillip is still 38% bearish

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Tesla (TSLA.US) rose nearly 1% before the market on Monday after experiencing intense Cybercab (Cybercab) appearances at the Austin F1 race, production milestones at the Berlin factory, and the release of new details from the Roadster. However, Phillip Securities (Phillip Securities) is still pessimistic about its valuation. Tesla closed down 0.6% to $372.22 on Friday, but has accumulated a cumulative increase of 5% throughout the week, the strongest weekly performance since the end of August.

Cyber taxis “surround” Austin F1, and the driverless fleet expands rapidly

Tesla's driverless ambitions were showcased around the Circuit of the Americas (Circuit of the Americas) in Austin last Sunday. Photos from the scene showed Golden Cyber taxis and Model Y autonomous taxis lining up near the venue. Ashok Elluswamy, head of Tesla's AI software, said on X: “Self-driving taxis are out of sight!” Tesla investor and opinion leader Sawyer Merritt said that as of noon, more than 50 cybertaxis were picking up passengers.

Community tracker Cybercab Spotter records a total of 1,250 cyber taxi sightings in Austin last Saturday, of which 1,159 (about 93%) were classified as driverless. According to Robotaxi Radar, the total number of sightings and driverless sightings both set new records.

Tesla extended the Austin service boundary to this racetrack last week, extended the request time for ride-hailing to 1 a.m., while imposing restrictions on drop-offs around the late-night period. CEO Musk said on a recent earnings call: “This is hard to overstate. Autonomous driving mileage has indeed increased extremely fast from week to week. For example, Austin's cybertaxi fleet has grown tenfold since it went live about a month ago.”

Tesla began providing paid cyber taxi rides in Austin on September 3, and said it had more than 300 cars in service in the city as of October 10. The company aims to achieve an all-weather autonomous taxi service and complete the first batch of customer deliveries by the end of the year, but it is expected that most cyber taxis will still be owned by Tesla. At the time of this expansion, Tesla is facing a deadline due last Friday and needs to respond to US safety regulators about cyber taxi certification issues that lack steering wheels and pedals.

Berlin factory is sprinting to production capacity, new Roadster details reveal version differences

Meanwhile, Berlin plant manager Andre Thierig said that with the factory running around the clock over the weekend, the weekly production of the Model Y set a new record of 7,000 vehicles, but it is still 500 units below the weekly target of 7,500 vehicles. Thierig said on X: “Producing 7,000 cars a week is hard work for the whole team! We're going to keep improving from here. The mission is not finished yet!”

Tesla plans to apply for approval to build a second production hall of about 536,000 square meters in December. The reason behind this increase in production capacity is Musk's claim that demand is exceeding supply, partly driven by the adoption of fully automated driving (FSD). “Demand for our vehicles is growing rapidly and has significantly exceeded our production volume,” he said during the earnings call. Tesla also claims it has the largest backlog of passenger car orders in four years, and battery supply is constraining production.

Tesla Roadster news materials circulating on X revealed the key differences between the entry-level Performance version and the higher-end Thrust and Rocket versions. The Performance version lacks air conditioning thrusters, gold-tone windows, and the “Supersonic” interior available in the higher version. Low-temperature protection Ano White car paint is exclusive to the Rocket version.

According to the document, “All vehicle materials on the product page are Thrust or Rocket versions,” indicating that Tesla's online images do not show the basic version. The description of the car door in the material is conflicting: the information guide says that the Performance version should not be described as being equipped with butterfly doors, while the comparison table lists all three versions with double folding doors with removable roof panels as standard. The Rocket version has 10 thrusters for acceleration, lift, and yaw control, while the Thrust version has 4 rear thrusters. Tesla claims that the Rocket version can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 0.59 seconds. Tesla has yet to announce pricing. Pre-order the Performance version for $50,000, Thrust for $250,000, and the Rocket version by invitation only.

Phillip Securities raised its target price and continued to “sell”, and retail sentiment turned short

Phillip Securities raised Tesla's target price from $220 to $230 on Friday, but maintained a “sell” rating, implying a 38% downside compared to the current stock price. The agency said the increase in spending was offsetting the improvement in profit margins. Tesla's operating expenses increased 39% year over year, and operating margin fell from 5.8% to 2.6%. The company's third-quarter adjusted earnings per share were $0.48, higher than market expectations of $0.45; revenue was $28.05 billion, the same as the previous year. Total free cash flow was $1.53 billion, and the number of active FSD subscriptions reached 1.74 million.

On Stocktwits, Tesla's retail sentiment has changed from “bullish” a week ago to “bearish” as news volume is “high.” One user said, “The $TSLA autopilot party is over. A public class action lawsuit is imminent, and the Autopilot case is still progressing.” Another user said, “I'm surprised that $TSLA shares are still at $370 and rising every week! The earnings report is terrible.” Since the beginning of the year, Tesla's stock price has outperformed its “Big Seven” peers, with a cumulative decline of about 17%, the worst performance in this group.