After the recent shareholder meeting, Tesla's (TSLA) stock price has risen, indicating that the company is about to launch new products following the approval of Elon Musk's $56 billion compensation plan. #2024 macro outlook#
Tesla's "product portfolio aging" is a bigger problem than its pricing issues.
Itay Michaeli, an auto stock research analyst at Citi, pointed out in an interview with Yahoo Finance that Tesla's product innovation will be the key to driving its growth.
Michaeli emphasized that the market is very optimistic about Tesla's future new products. He explained that Tesla has hinted at launching more affordable electric car models. Investors are mainly concerned about the price and overall design and content of these vehicles. Investors are mainly concerned about whether these new models can generate market heat like previous Tesla models. If this can be achieved, Michaeli believes it will greatly push up Tesla's stock price.
"We want to see a lot of innovation, perhaps a different design language. Whatever it is, it needs to create a lot of incremental excitement," Michaeli said in an interview with Yahoo Finance.
Tesla has promised to launch an electric car with a price tag of $25,000, so the market is eagerly expecting it to achieve a low price point.
Although price is a key factor, Tesla's challenges are not limited to this. Analysts pointed out that Tesla's product portfolio aging is one of the company's bigger challenges. Therefore, in addition to reducing prices, Tesla also needs to reshape its competitiveness through design innovation and product content enhancement.
As global demand for electric vehicles slows, Tesla needs to attract a broader market through innovation. Michaeli believes that if Tesla can incorporate enough innovative elements into new products, it will have the opportunity to explore new growth space and improve market sentiment.
In the next few months, how Tesla deals with product portfolio aging and price pressure, and how to successfully launch new products, will be the focus of investors and the market.
Tesla seeks to recover $1 billion in damages.
Meanwhile, Tesla has sued former supplier Matthews for stealing trade secrets related to electric vehicle batteries.
Tesla has sued former supplier Matthews International in the Northern District of California Federal Court, accusing it of stealing trade secrets related to Tesla's battery manufacturing process and sharing them with the electric car giant's competitors.
The suit was filed on Friday, June 14, and claims that Matthews abused Tesla's company trade secrets related to dry electrode coating technology and should pay compensation to Tesla, which "conservatively estimated to exceed $1 billion".
Matthews' spokesperson and Tesla's lawyers and spokespersons did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday, June 17.
The lawsuit states that Matthews has been supplying manufacturing machinery to Tesla since 2019. Tesla said it shared secrets related to dry electrode coating with Matthews. The automaker said the coating can significantly reduce the size, cost, energy consumption, and production cycle of battery factories, while improving the energy density and power of battery units.
The lawsuit also claims that Matthews shared Tesla's innovative achievements with unnamed competitors by selling "machines and other technologies that embody Tesla trade secrets."
The lawsuit also claims that Matthews claimed Tesla's inventions as their own in patent applications, which disclosed Tesla's trade secrets.
Tesla has asked the court to prevent Matthews from abusing its trade secrets and hand over its patent applications, while demanding compensation for monetary losses.