Tesla falls after report indicates Shanghai plant expansion is delayed
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Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) traded lower on Thursday after a report indicated that a major expansion of the Shanghai Gigafactory has been delayed due to concerns from Beijing over data security with Elon Musk also owning the Starlink business. The expansion of the Shanghai plant was supposed to start this year and take capacity from the site up to 2M vehicles a year, sources told Bloomberg.
Last year, Tesla (TSLA) vehicles were banned from Chinese military complexes and housing compounds due to similar worries.
On Wall Street, Oppenheimer reiterated a Perform rating on TSLA. Analyst Colin Rusch said all signs point to a moderated pricing environment for the electric vehicle maker and warned on a potential increase in marketing spending and incremental incentives as the company executes on scaling its 4680 cell, Cybertruck, and Semi production. "We believe the company is well positioned to improve geographic diversity of sales with four production facilities up and may need to leverage that position as certain markets slow in growth," noted Rusch.
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) peeled off 3.33% in early trading on Thursday following a CPI report that stalled out for the moment the sudden rush into tech and growth stocks over the last two sessions.
The Seeking Alpha Quant Rating on TSLA is flashing Hold.
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