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  • Tesla gets price target boost from Truist, but it comes with criticism


    Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a price target boost from analysts at Truist Securities, but it came with some criticisms based on a lack of information on several things that investors were excited to hear about regarding future vehicles and AI achievements.

    Last night, Tesla reported its earnings from the fourth quarter of 2024, and while it had a very tempered financial showing, missing most of the Wall Street targets that were set for it, the stock was up after hours and on Thursday due to the details the company released regarding its plans for 2025.

    CEO Elon Musk stunned listeners last night by revealing plans to launch unsupervised Full Self-Driving as a service in Austin in June 2025. It will be the first time Tesla will offer driverless FSD rides in public, something it has been working with the City of Austin on since December.

    Tesla to launch unsupervised Full Self-Driving as a service in Austin in June

    It also reiterated plans for affordable models to be launched this year, potentially catalyzing annual growth in deliveries, something it said it expects to resume in 2025.

    Tesla was flat on deliveries in 2024 compared to 2023.

    The positives during the call were enough for Truist Securities analyst William Stein to raise the company’s price target to $373 from $351. However, Stein’s note to investors showed there was something to be desired despite all the good that was revealed during the call:

    Stein said there was “not enough ground-truth” during the call and too much of a focus on “cheerleading” the company’s potential releases this year:

    “Too much cheerleading; not enough ground-truth. In Q4, TSLA’s ASP weakness drive revenue, GPM, OPM, & EPS below consensus.”

    As previously mentioned, Tesla did report weak financials that missed consensus estimates. What saved the call and perhaps the stock from plummeting on these missed metrics was the other details that Musk revealed, especially the FSD launch in Austin in June.

    There were also plenty of things related to the affordable models and other vehicles, like the fact that Tesla plans to include things like Steer by Wire, Adaptive Air Suspension, and Rear Wheel Steering, that helped offset negatives.

    Stein saw this as a distraction from what should have been reported:

    “While CEO Elon Musk played the role of cheerleader, calling for TSLA’s path to massive market cap by leading in autonomy, management was remarkably short on two critical details: (1) info about new vehicles in 2025 and (2) milestones for AI acheivements, especially FSD. We continue to ask ourselves ‘where’s the beef?’ CY26 EPS to $3.99 (from $4.87). DCF-derived PT to $373 (from $351).”

    Tesla did detail some AI milestones, like its record-breaking miles per accident on Autopilot, which was a Q4-best of 5.94 million miles. The Shareholder Deck also outlined major upgrades to AI:

    “In Q4, we completed the deployment of Cortex, a ~50k H100 training cluster at Gigafactory Texas. Cortex helped enable V13 of FSD (Supervised)1, which boasts major improvements in safety and comfort thanks to 4.2x increase in data, higher resolution video inputs, 2x reduction in photon-to-control latency and redesigned controller, among other enhancements.”

    Tesla shares are up 2.11 percent on Thursday as of 12:05 p.m. on the East Coast.

    Please email me with questions and comments at olstar@maxxd.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @MaxxdUK, or if you have news tips, you can email us at olstar@maxxd.com.

    Tesla gets price target boost from Truist, but it comes with criticism





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  • Tesla to launch unsupervised Full Self-Driving as a service in Austin in June


    Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed during the company’s Q4 Earnings Call today that it would launch unsupervised Full Self-Driving as a service in Austin, Texas, in June.

    It will be the first time Tesla will use a driverless service on roads anywhere in the world.

    The announcement follows Tesla’s launch of the Robotaxi Cybercab in October 2024, when it revealed plans to launch driverless rides in both Texas and California in 2025.

    Musk said during the Q4 Earnings Call that Austin would be the first location because Tesla wants to “dip its toe in the water” and ensure safety before it launches a widespread self-driving effort that does not require a driver.

    Tesla plans to expand this service to other cities before the end of the year. Musk believes this will happen before 2025, but he emphasized that Tesla needs to confirm that the probability of injury is low.

    In December, Tesla began talking to the City of Austin regarding the operation of a Robotaxi fleet:

    Tesla eyes first city for Robotaxi operation with preliminary talks

    The driverless rides will be launched as a Service and will require payment from the rider as it will transport them from one place to another.

    Musk said:

    “We want to prove to ourselves and prove to regulators that the vehicles are unequivocally safer in autonomous mode than not. We’re not far off. Like, low single-digit months.”

    Tesla will need to execute here as many years the company has said it would solve autonomy by the end of the year. This is perhaps the most enthusiastic Musk has been about the prospect of solving self-driving internally, but it needs to be noted that Tesla is rolling this out in a manner that is beneficial to everyone.

    It will not be widely available until Tesla can prove it is safer than any other mode of automobile operation. This is why the company is pursuing a slow rollout of the service.

    Please email me with questions and comments at olstar@maxxd.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @MaxxdUK, or if you have news tips, you can email us at olstar@maxxd.com.

    Tesla to launch unsupervised Full Self-Driving as a service in Austin in June





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  • Tesla launches faster Cybertruck charging at all V4 Superchargers


    Tesla has officially launched faster charging speeds for Cybertruck owners across all V4 Supercharging stalls, after the company began rolling out quicker speeds for the electric vehicle (EV) just last month.

    In a post on X on Monday evening, the Tesla Charging account announced that all V4 Supercharging posts will now let Cybertrucks charge at 325kW, ahead of the company’s deployment of V4 charging cabinets that will allow even faster speeds. Tesla first started deploying the 325kW Cybertruck speeds at select sites with V3 cabinets last month, after piloting a few initial trials of faster charging speeds last summer.

    The company’s other vehicles cap out at 250kW charging speeds, which can be accessed even on V3 Superchargers. However, the Cybertruck’s 800-volt architecture allows it to charge even more quickly, and once V4 cabinets are rolled out, the vehicles will be able to charge at speeds of up to 500kW.

    A few other non-Tesla EVs including the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 also feature 800v architecture, though it’s not yet clear if these vehicles will immediately gain access to the 325kW Supercharger speeds.

    READ MORE ON TESLA SUPERCHARGERS: Lucid Gravity gains native access to Tesla Superchargers starting January 31

    Tesla began quietly deploying its V4 Supercharging stalls in multiple markets throughout 2023, stoking many questions about when owners would get access to faster speeds. In November, Tesla also shared plans to improve other elements of its V4 Superchargers, including the deployment of longer cables to accommodate non-Tesla EVs, and improving the accuracy of stall availability from navigation.

    Charging Director Max de Zegher has pointed to Tesla’s production of pre-fabricated Supercharger stalls at its Buffalo, New York factory as one of the reasons the company has been able to roll charging stations out so quickly in recent years, along with including significant cost-savings. As such, de Zegher has said that Supercharger prices should also come down as these savings are passed onto the consumer, as was spotted in many locations in late 2024.

    What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at olstar@maxxd.com.

    Tesla reveals Q4 Supercharger winners, opens next voting round

    Tesla launches faster Cybertruck charging at all V4 Superchargers





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