Tesla’s ride-sharing business could be worth hundreds of millions to the company in the future, an analyst for Morgan Stanley said Monday.
Adam Jonas increased his price target for Tesla from $280 to $465 — but said the stock could go even higher to $611 — based on his forecast that Tesla could introduce an autonomous ride-sharing service by as early as 2018, Bloomberg reported.
It’s at least the third time that Jonas has publicly pumped Tesla’s stock.
Jonas says that Tesla’s future could be in part-time car ownership or autonomous sharing, which could position the carmaker with the likes of Apple or Google who may be building cars for those purposes.
Jonas dubbed the prospective venture “Tesla Mobility” although the automaker hasn’t publicly shared plans for that kind of service. Jonas said the automaker could make public plans for a ride-sharing program in 12 to 18 months, with a launch shortly after the mid-size Model 3 in 2017. He predicted that Tesla could launch a fully autonomous, ride sharing program in roughly 10 years.
Before people could split payments for robot cars, Jonas says that there would be two phases: a semi-autonomous phase and then a nearly completely autonomous phase before launching a fully driver-less car in 2025.
Jonas asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk about the program earlier this month during an earnings call and Musk was predictably tight-lipped:
Jonas: First question: Steve Jurvetson was recently quoted saying that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told him that if by 2020 Tesla’s cars are autonomous, that he’d want to buy all of them. Is this a real, I mean, forget the 2020 for a moment, but is this a real business opportunity for Tesla? Supplying cars to ridesharing firms, or does Tesla just cut out the middleman and sell on-demand, electric mobility services directly from the company on its own platform?
Musk: That’s an insightful question.
Jonas: You don’t have to answer it.
Musk: I don’t think I should answer it.
Jonas: Sometimes you can tell more from the non-answer than from the answer.
Shares of Tesla were up 1.5 percent in early trading Tuesday to $259.05.
The cult of TSLA.
be fearful. all this optomistic stupidity is gonna blow up big. hopefully before mr jonas cashes out.
And if you believe that’s going to happen, then,
A bridge o’er to Brooklyn’s incredibly swell
and to you, for just two hundred dollars, I’ll sell
When money is free, babbling about what you’ll do sometime in the future, is always more profitable than actually doing something. Like most successful companies at this stage of The Great Decline, Tesla is only very partially in the business of selling stuff. it’s main business is selling stocks and bonds and empty promises.
OK, so we’d better all get our Tesla orders in before that happens?
I’m actually looking forward to when the Big Three refers to Google, Apple, and Tesla. Tesla is coming fast and hard, I wouldn’t bet against it.
I think Google is Alphabet now. Oh and also if those three companies are your economy’s “big three”, your economy is in reality dead and buried (granted Google is into other industries but still the bulk of it is internet search/ads is it not?). One well placed EMP knocks out at least two of those firms, if not the third.
How does an EMP do any more damage to those “big three” than the former “big three”?
I can see Google and Tesla continuing their growth and expansion, but Apple does not seem to be on the same trajectory anymore, sans Jobs.
And the real reason I came to comment on this article, what does the B&B hate more- Tesla for existing, or Elio for trying to exist? (I do agree that the stock’s doubling or tripling seems a bit ludicrous, though not entirely insane given the enthusiasm for them on the market)
>>>Tesla is coming fast and hard, I wouldn’t bet against it.
I wouldn’t bet against it but I wouldn’t bet on it either. At least not the automotive part of it. Home batteries for solar storage–that has a better chance of making it big.
Why should I buy their batteries for home storage? Lithium batteries have good storage and are light. For home storage weight does not matter there are better choices (cheaper but weight more and take up more volume) out their for home storage. Advanced Lead-Acid, Sodium Sulfur Chloride for two.
Tesla has been blowing smoke for so long they become experts at it. Still I wouldn’t bet against the stock (markets may be efficient but they are also irrational)
but with length? thats a requirement in china
Insurance companies will NEVER allow this.
You got it.
Autonomous? Nobody gets to experience the purported driving awesomeness of the Tesla because a bot is controlling everything?
Then how is a Tesla superior to something vastly cheaper that you could easily enter, exit and throw bags in, like an NV200?
Agreed. I’d rather ride in comfort than be crammed into an expensive supercar driven by a robot – unless that robot is a replicant like Sean Young.
*Googles Sean Young*
..Ah. I see.
@RideHeight
My sentiments exactly.
My optical circuit shunts straight from eyeball to midbrain (and all points south) for brunettes.
To me, autonomous ride sharing means taking the bus. Which I don’t do.
Bs. This pumping of tsla stock is delusional.
And I would think Musk is presented with delusional worshipers every day on every level. I wonder how many have asked him to cure something for them.
Kind of hope I live to see what he’s doing when he’s 60.
Will probably look a lot like Orson Welles.
Aren’t electric vehicles, with their range issues and recharge times exactly the OPPOSITE of what a ride sharing company would want to automate and run?
Because buzzword.
i guess the kiddies running the show now were too young to remember tech bubble 1.0
everyone gets too pumped up in the concept to remember that it has to make actual money eventually. ive got 3 vehicles that are licensed, insured, and paid for.
why would i want a ride in a freakin robotesla? is it free? is it going to wait for me?
Autonomous and Electric are two completely independent technologies.
The forecast of this ridiculous stock price based on a “could be” speculation is just lunatic, literally.