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Tesla Inc, is at last poised to unveil the long-awaited Cybertruck at an event scheduled for this Thursday, November 30th, with Wedbush expecting it to price between $50,000 and $80,000.
Ahead of the event, Wedbush published a note on Tuesday morning maintaining its positive outlook on Tesla and its “outperform” rating and $310 price target.
In the note, analyst Dan Ives says: “This is another historical moment for Tesla and Musk with the Cybertruck unveil as the Street is excited to see the formal vehicle launch featuring the dual-motor trim and its top-level tri-motor AWD performance model along with updates regarding production and scaling of the Cybertruck platform which is expected to be ~250k units per year by FY25.”
“Although no FY24 delivery targets, we estimate that the company will churn out 2k-3k units this quarter with the first 10k unit quarter to come in 1H24 with pilot production capacity in Austin at 125k units while the reservation count/pre-orders has reportedly topped the ~2 million unit threshold as a gauge of demand,” he wrote on Tuesday.
To expedite production, Ives said, Tesla has shifted its focus to building 100% Cybertruck cells in Austin, streamlining operations as they work towards ramping up production across all four lines in Phase 1 over the next 6 to 9 months, with the goal of achieving the targeted annual capacity of approximately 250,000 units by FY25.
“Launching Cybertruck is important for the broader Tesla growth story over the coming years and also will prove to the doubters that Musk can successfully expand the Tesla halo effect as more consumers head down the EV path over the coming years,” Ives said.
He noted that the impact on Tesla’s financials in FY24 may not be substantial, but that the Cybertruck launch reaffirms Tesla’s leadership in the EV industry.
Recall just a day ago, the company was spotted assembling a fleet of over 25 Cybertrucks at its Gigafactory in Texas.
Over 25 Cybertrucks spotted at Giga Texas today in preparation for the delivery event in three days! #Cybertruck #Tesla #GigaTexas pic.twitter.com/pCfm5d9IX5
— Jeff Roberts (@peterdog15) November 27, 2023
Anticipation of the event has been growing since Tesla’s mid-October conference call, where Elon Musk warned about the “enormous challenges” forthcoming for Cybertruck production.
Musk said on the call: “It’s an amazing product but I do want to emphasize that there will be enormous challenges in reaching volume production with the Cybertruck and then in making the Cybertruck cash flow positive.”
He added: “While I think this is potentially our best product ever — I think it is our best product ever — it is going to require immense work to reach high-volume production and be cash flow positive at a price that people can afford.”
The Cybertruck story kicks off this Thursday.
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