Tesla Shareholder Meeting: Elon Musk Teases Products, Warns Of ‘Challenging 12 Months’

Tesla (TSLA) Chief Executive Elon Musk hinted during Tuesday’s shareholder meeting that new Tesla products are coming, he is open to try advertising, confirmed a Cybertruck delivery event will take place this year and also warned the EV giant is not immune to global economic challenges.

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The meeting took place at Tesla’s Austin factory Tuesday evening and came just days after Musk announced there will be a new person heading up Twitter, signaling to TSLA shareholders he may have more time to spend on the global electric-vehicle giant.

There was a level of uncertainty going into the gathering, with Tesla possibly choosing to disclose new details on the Cybertruck, a revamped Model 3, a next-generation EV, updates on battery developments and more. However, Musk and Tesla executives remained mostly mum on these topics.

The Tesla CEO stressed Tuesday the next 12-months will be “challenging” and that “Tesla is not immune to the global economic environment.”

Meanwhile, Musk did not announce any new products Tuesday, saying “this is not the time.” However, the Tesla chief added there are two projects in the pipeline.

“I just want to emphasize that we are actually building a new product,” Musk said. “There are two new products I think you will be very excited about.”

Musk also expressed openness to running Tesla advertisements and shot down rumors he is stepping down from his role as Tesla CEO.

“It ain’t so,” he said.

Tesla stock rose more than 1% late Tuesday. During regular market trade TSLA increased 0.1% to 166.52.

Tesla stock has lost around half its market value since its last annual meeting in August 2022.

Tesla Stock: A Cybertruck Update

Musk also confirmed Tuesday that a Cybertruck delivery event will take place later in 2023.

“Sorry for the delay but we’re finally going to start delivering production Cybertrucks later this year,” he said.

But that’s not really new.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Tesla reported the Cybertruck remains “on track to begin production later this year” with plans for a delivery event in Q3.

The Tesla CEO recently teased the Cybertruck, driving it during a groundbreaking ceremony at the company’s Corpus Christi lithium refining plant.

Tesla is also close to starting trial production of a revamped Model 3 in Shanghai, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. However, it’s unclear when real output will begin in China and later in the U.S.

Since the Tesla investor day in early March, the company has remained silent on its next generation vehicle, to be produced at its new plant in Mexico.

Musk Continues To Stress Autonomous Driving

Musk has long touted Tesla’s full self-driving technology and the potential value it brings to the brand.

On Tuesday, Musk said full self-driving will be “much, much better” than a person driving a vehicle. Musk also claimed that being able to update millions of cars to make them go from manual driving to autonomous will be the “single biggest asset value increase in history.”

The Tesla CEO previously said the “value of a car that is autonomous is enormous,” during the first-quarter earnings call.

Musk also stressed that improvements in full self-driving are “really quite dramatic.”

“The trend is very clearly toward full autonomy, and I hesitate to say this, but I think we’ll do it this year,” Musk said, referring to self-driving vehicles, earlier.

Musk tweeted on May 8 that Tesla will roll out a free month trial for all North America vehicles when full self-driving is “super smooth (not just safe).”

Annual Meeting Comes After Quarterly Report

On April 19, Tesla reported a big first-quarter earnings decline while revenue missed views. Profit margins for the global EV giant also fell below 20% as the company executed an aggressive price-slashing strategy in the first part of 2023. Tesla reported revenue increasing 24% to $23.33 billion with earnings of 85 cents a share, a 20% decline compared with 2022.

The EV company’s total gross profit came in at $4.5 billion, with Tesla’s profit gross margin at 19.3%, down from 23.8% in the fourth quarter  and 29.1% a year earlier.

Auto gross margins excluding regulatory credits and leases skidded to 18.3% from 23.8% in the fourth quarter. That remains below the 20% gross margin “floor” Tesla previously targeted.

Musk told analysts Tesla is “comfortable” with its 2023 production target of 1.8 million. However, he downplayed the 2 million production number he used at the end of the fourth quarter.

“These are volatile times,” Musk said. “From a production standpoint, if things go well, we’ve got a shot at 2 million vehicles here. But that is the upside case.”

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Tesla Stock

The EV giant is up around 67% from a January low, but has retreated considerably since the end of March. Tesla stock remains below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

If Tesla stock continues to rebound, it could potentially form a double-bottom base with a 207.89 buy point. But which direction the stock might go remains uncertain.

TSLA stock bulls could spy aggressive entries, such as the 50-day line or perhaps a down-sloping trendline from the top of the three-month consolidation. However, risks remain elevated, especially in the current market.

Tesla stock ranks eighth in IBD’s Auto Manufacturers industry group. TSLA has a 56 Composite Rating out of 99. The stock also has a 19 Relative Strength Rating. The EPS Rating for Tesla stock is 93 out of 99.

Please follow Kit Norton on Twitter @KitNorton for more coverage.

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