Hey everybody Rob and we're here and today we are talking about some more new rumors on Tesla's project Highland. We've also got updates on EVs in China, new Cybertruck photos, an update from Morgan Stanley and more.
Quickly looking at the stock Tesla today kind of following the markets around both starting in the red but finishing up Tesla up 2% to close at $264.61, the Nasdaq up almost 1% on the day.
This was despite a downgrade for Tesla from Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley today. Although they did increase their price targets, they dropped from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating due to the run up in Tesla stock recently.
So kind of similar to what we talked about with Barclays and for similar reasons, they say quote, we see Tesla as an AI beneficiary and an auto company. High expectations on the former has brought the stock to a fair valuation, moving us to equal weight with a revised $250 price target, bull case $450, bear case $90 and quote. From their prior price targets, those are $50, $60 and $20 increases respectively. Quote, while we move to equal weight in our view, Tesla remains a must own company in any EV portfolio. We see continued evidence that Tesla is emerging as an industrial standard bearer for one of the greatest industrial changes we've witnessed in over a century, the electric transport and renewable energy economy. This goes well beyond supercharging deals with the likes of GM and Ford and look for other potential areas of collaboration, battery supply, operating system, FSD, etc. to follow and quote.
So after such a dramatic rise, no surprise to see the analysts taking a more weight and C approach on price targets and ratings at the moment, it is kind of a strange time in the market and not too long from heading back into earnings season again, which seemed to play a role in kicking off a lot of this around the first time, especially with Nvidia's report.
Alright, next up, we've got some rumors on Tesla's project, Highland. This is a Twitter thread from at Tesla's scope. I think we'll probably just go through this kind of line by line because there's a lot in here. Tesla's scope in the past has provided some good insight on things like this. There have been times where maybe things were a little bit overhyped as well. So just kind of keep that in mind. But it does sound like they've got quite a few sources for the information that they're sharing here.
So it's a thread about the Model 3 redesign. They say, Highland represents Tesla's continued innovation and ingenuity of the last 16 years with the most significant refresh of an existing model. So they say it's a complete overall, including a major refresh of the exterior, but also significant updates to the interior, and that the prototypes that we've seen on the road the last few months are only a tease of what is coming.
They say Tesla is incorporating dozens of technological improvements within a Highland, including for the first time ever, steer by wire with a yoke and steering wheels. So that would be a significant, very significant change. We just talked about the patent that showed up for that a few days ago. But I haven't seen a whole lot of people talking about that showing up on the refreshed Model 3. So that'd be one of the most interesting and exciting changes here. And if they are doing that on Highland, would they not also be doing that on the Cybertruck at the same time? It would seem pretty likely.
They say other changes include Matrix LEDs on all trims and redesigned RGB ambient lights, which they also say are coming to the Model S and X as part of a quote unquote secret minor refresh tentatively happening within the next two months or earlier, which I think puts a lot of weight on refresh, probably more just an iteration as Tesla normally does with their cars. Anyway, they continue on to say based on our conversations we've now had with at least a dozen employees across various roles within the company, Highland's interior will feel fresher, more modern, and much closer to the look and feel of the recent Model S and X redesign.
So relatively, I don't think the S and X are really all that different in terms of the design aesthetic. Obviously, they've got the ventilated seats. We've heard some rumors about that for the Model 3 Highland already. Maybe we see a bigger screen, some more emphasis on gaming like we saw with the S and X refresh, but I think we all have a good idea of what Tesla likes the interior to look like, and I would expect it to look like that without any major surprises. They do say that a rear screen has been experimented with, but no word on whether or not that would be included.
They say one of the focuses is on recycled materials. I don't think any surprise on that. And then also focus on streamlining the experience when switching between models, which I don't think makes a ton of sense. It's already pretty easy.
Obviously, there's differences between the three and the Y and the S and X. So maybe that just means it's more similar to the S and X. Obviously, we expect stocks to go away, which I guess would make things more similar, but I'm not putting a whole lot of weight in that comment.
They say that the mirrors will display an R when in reverse. So can't change around that one. And then also no surprise, but hardware four would be incorporated on the redesign. And they do say that that would include with the new front fascia, a bumper camera. So that remains one of the biggest questions on hardware for right now is if there are going to be additional cameras added, like we had seen suggested from some of their leaks, we've yet to see that in production vehicles. But of course, there was one on the production beta Cybertruck.
They say upgraded speaker system like we've heard elsewhere, but been told to expect minor improvements. They say some power efficiencies from removing some sensors, including utilizing GPS based data. There may be a more robust air filter. And they say that the exterior lights are not expected to receive any significant changes, which is a little bit weird since we have seen those covered up on the test vehicles that we've seen out and about. And then finally on the product, they say some seat changes. So this is not necessarily all encompassing, but that's what they are aware of so far.
据他们说, Model Y的升级扬声器系统和其他车型一样,但预计仅有轻微改进。他们表示通过移除某些传感器并利用基于GPS的数据来达到一些功率效率。这可能会有更强大的空气过滤器。虽然我们看到测试车辆的外部灯光被覆盖,但据他们说,预计外部灯光不会有任何重大变化,这有些奇怪。最后,他们说车型的座椅也会有所变化。尽管这不是全面的更新信息,但这是目前他们所知道的。
And again, I think the steer by wire, if that does come into fruition would be the biggest update there, the rest seems like things we could pretty easily guess for pricing. They say that they have not received any concrete information, but they're confident that Highland would be priced similarly to the current generation, which just seems like their guess. And then on the actual launch, they say sadly, that's a confusing topic.
Quote, with multiple delays already occurring, we've received conflicting opinions from the employees we've spoken to some say in one to three months, some say later this year, others have said key one 2024 and quote. So we'll see some of that discrepancy could be explained by which region they're talking about maybe earlier in China, maybe later in the US, but it could still be some months away.
All right, moving on from project Highland, we've got a couple of new photos of the Cybertruck here and more importantly than just new photos of something we've seen a lot, actually photos of the Cybertrucks in pairs. And that is something we have not seen a whole lot of. So Tesla owners club San Joaquin Valley tweeting a few photos that were sent to them of two Cybertrucks end to end on a trailer, which I think is just really exciting to see because it's reminiscent of what we will be seeing when the Cybertruck is actually being delivered.
And there will be full trailers of these things going out. We'll see drone videos of lots filled with Cybertrucks, which will be a ton of fun. And the Cybertruck with its aesthetics just hits a little bit differently in a big group than a bunch of Model 3s or Model Ys. So I'm excited for that. This is a little bit of a preview. And then we also have another shot of two Cybertrucks, this one from Bay Area Carbon on Instagram, obviously these two with the camouflage wrap.
未来会发布这些产品的完整预告片。我们将看到无人机拍摄的填满Cybertrucks的地块的视频,这将非常有趣。Cybertruck的设计美学在大群体中的表现与一堆Model 3或Model Y不同,这让我感到兴奋。这是一个小小的预览。另外,我们还有来自Bay Area Carbon在Instagram上的另外两个Cybertruck的照片,这两个都有伪装的覆盖物。
All right, next up, we've got some news on EVs in China. China as has been rumored for quite some time has announced that they will be extending the EV purchase tax exemption and actually extending it at least in part through 2027. So new energy vehicles purchased in 2024 and 2025 will be exempted up to about $4,200 per vehicle. Obviously that would be dependent upon the sales price. And then for 2026 and 2027, that maximum will be capped in half. So the Secretary General of the China passenger car association CPCA saying that quote, the extension by another four years beat market expectations, and quote, which I would agree with. I think the last extension for this was just one additional year. So for them to do now four years on it, that's pretty significant. So this will be a big window for Tesla to take advantage of that incentive alongside other new energy vehicles. It just makes the case to buy an ice vehicle even more difficult to make. And we'll continue to support the market share growth and the cost curve decline of EVs.
Next, I want to revisit yesterday's topic of Dojo and AI as I was streaming Elon also shared some more comments on this on Twitter, noting that Dojo has actually been online and running useful tasks for a few months, which isn't actually anything new because Tesla did announce that at AI day two. But obviously the graphic that we talked about yesterday said start of Dojo production in July this year, which is yet to come. So whatever they have been doing and whatever they plan to do going forward, there is an inflection point that they anticipate happening in July. Separately, Elon also gave us an update on the revision to the auto wipers. He has said before that that's still single frame single camera yet to be updated to surround video, but he is saying that actually smart auto wiper software releases in about three weeks. So I think we're all very much looking forward to that. And then he also says that our patented actually smart summon is probably a month or two after that, which I feel like we may have heard that before. So as usual, maybe don't put a ton of stock in it, but it will be here eventually. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing how it performs.
接下来,我想重新讨论一下Dojo和人工智能,因为我在直播时,Elon也在Twitter上分享了一些更多的评论。他指出,Dojo实际上已经上线并运行了一些有用的任务几个月了,这并不是什么新鲜事,因为特斯拉在AI day two上宣布过。但显然,我们昨天谈论的图表显示,Dojo的生产将从今年7月开始,这还没有到来。所以无论他们过去做了什么,将来打算做什么,他们都预计在7月会出现一个拐点。另外,Elon还向我们更新了自动雨刷的修订版。他之前曾经说过,那仍然是单帧单相机,还没有更新到周围视频,但他表示,智能自动雨刷软件实际上将在大约三周后发布。所以我想我们都非常期待它的到来。然后他还说,我们的智能召唤专利可能会在一个多月后或两个月后发布,我感觉我们以前可能听过这个。所以像往常一样,可能不要太在意,但它最终会到来。我非常期待看到它的表现。
Alright, last couple of items JD Power has released their initial quality study for 2023. This is never a study that Tesla performs particularly well in. And as we have talked about when this has come out in the past, and like we've talked about, one reason for that might be Tesla's inclusion of more technology in their vehicles than other brands might have. Similar to issues that we've talked about with how consumer reports grades things, there doesn't seem to be really any control for where problems occur here, and how number one impactful those might be or number two, the influence that those might have on quality or reliability over time, which I think is how a lot of people interpret initial quality scores or in the case of consumer reports or liability scores.
But when you dig in is often not the case, especially when with a brand like Tesla, it's getting updated. Some of those features are getting updated over time. Anyway, as usual, Tesla not officially ranked because they don't allow customer data to be reported to JD Power in states that they have the option to not allow that, which is nice. Most brands just seem to pass over that data happily, but from the scores they are able to collect, they say that Tesla has 257 problems per 100, which would be near the very bottom of the list and 33% more than the average brand, but ahead of other newer EV brands like Polestar at 313, Lucid at 340, Rivian at 282, and overall industry-wide JD Power is reporting that problems per 100 was up pretty significantly year over year, and their first comment about this in this entire press release is that, quote, the continuing decline in quality can be attributed to multiple factors, such as greater usage and penetration of technology, end quote. So hey, JD Power, maybe that's an indication that you should be partitioning out parts of the survey, and I'm sure they probably do this for their actual customers, but for these rankings and these awards, are they really studying what they initially set out to be studying with this? Probably not so much anymore.
They even specifically call out problems with driver assistance systems. What that has to do with initial quality, I don't know that to me seems completely separate. For example, if someone owns a Tesla and they experience phantom breaking once and they report that, that would take Tesla's problems per 100 vehicles up in this initial quality study. And then, hooray, everyone gets to go say that Tesla doesn't make reliable vehicles because look at this low initial quality score. It just doesn't make any sense at all, you could have a car that doesn't have any driver assistance system that then doesn't even have the opportunity to have problems in that area. If you want to call that initial quality, I guess go ahead, but in that case, the best initial quality would just be to not have a car at all.
The last topic for today is an announcement about a major loan for Ford. The Department of Energy has announced that they have agreed to a conditional commitment for a loan of up to $9.2 billion to Blue Oval SK, which is a partnership between Ford and SK on for battery production factories in the United States, one in Tennessee, and two in Kentucky. The three factories in aggregate are eventually expected to reach capacity of 120 gigawatt hours per year. So this is a conditional commitment to basically the intent to proceed with the loan, but there will still be requirements for Blue Oval SK to achieve the financing. And that would likely be tranche-based as certain milestones are reached. But initially seems like a pretty big win for them, obviously a lot of potential capital there to finance those plants.
Alright, that will wrap it up then for today. As always, thank you for listening, make sure you're subscribed and signed up for notifications. Also find me on Twitter at Tesla podcast. And we'll see you tomorrow for the Friday, June 23 episode of Tesla Gaming. Thank you.