Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) investors have had a lot to think about this year. Increasing competition wasn’t unexpected, but a notable slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) demand has surprised many industry players and followers. The EV leader finally did report growing vehicle sales once again in the third quarter.
There were almost 463,000 deliveries in Q3, up by 6.4% versus last year, but the company will still be hard pressed to beat 2023 EV sales this year. CEO Elon Musk had told investors he expected to average about 50% annual growth for several more years. So now investors are left to ponder how Tesla will grow into the stock’s high valuation. This week’s robotaxi event gave investors a clue as to what Musk has in mind.
EVs, chargers, and energy
Tesla has never been just about cars. The EV business has been its profit engine, of course. However, investors have valued the company well beyond what those EV profits have commanded. A recent price-to-earnings ratio above 60 indicates that investors see value well beyond its current business. Now, as mentioned, EV sales growth has even stagnated or at least slowed.
At the same time, Tesla’s other, tangential businesses are still in major growth mode. The company’s global Supercharger EV charging network now has nearly 6,700 sites with more than 60,000 available charging stalls. Tesla has also inked agreements with several automotive competitors for access to its dominant network.
Tesla’s energy segment is growing quickly, too. The 16.3 GWh of energy storage products it produced in the last two quarterly periods was more than the company deployed in the prior 12 months. But in the second-quarter earnings call, Musk told shareholders that if they didn’t believe the company could successfully achieve full self-driving automation, they shouldn’t own stock in his company. So investors had high hopes for what he would present at the robotaxi event last week.
Tesla unveiled its prototype robotaxi this week. Image source: Tesla.
Tesla 2.0
Many investors following Tesla were unimpressed by the robotaxi event. The company has millions of cars on the road, and is collecting data from its supervised premium driver assistance system. Yet it didn’t offer any data that could help ease regulatory fears or show it has a leg up on any competitors. Most investors feel like Tesla is way behind in self-driving technology, as Alphabet‘s Waymo collects data from its more than 20 million driverless miles.
Tesla shares dropped after its much-hyped robotaxi event. But that dip, and future dips, are good times for investors to add Tesla shares. Tesla’s self-driving capabilities shouldn’t be dismissed. It’s been collecting data from millions of cars that can see what drivers are doing — and doing wrong — as well as “driverless” data when vehicles are in supervised full self-driving (FSD) mode.
The stock also dropped from the lack of concrete timelines from Tesla. Musk has overpromised before, but he did say he plans to have the newly revealed “Cybercab” in production by 2027. And that fully unsupervised FSD will begin in California and Texas next year with Model Y and 3 vehicles.
Many Tesla watchers were unsatisfied by the 2027 timeframe. Investors have wanted to see Tesla launch a sub-$30,000 EV to stir up more mass market appeal. But long-term investors shouldn’t be overly disappointed that the company’s cheaper EV is still several years away.
Tesla is focusing on self-driving software for highly profitable future income. Whether that comes from the cheaper, two-seater Cybercab or from current Tesla owners paying extra for FSD software, it will still juice future profits. Those with $1,000 to invest and a long-term investing time horizon could use the drop after the Robotaxi event to add Tesla shares.
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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Howard Smith has positions in Alphabet and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.