Global leader in electric vehicles $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ Data released on Friday shows that in 2024, the cumulative sales in the Chinese market increased by 8.8%, setting a historical record in the Chinese market with over 0.657 million vehicles sold. In this highly competitive market in China, Tesla performed incredibly well, and despite a decline in its global annual delivery volume for the first time, the exceptionally strong demand in the Chinese market still helped Tesla achieve the top position in global sales of "Battery Electric Vehicles" (BEVs) for 2024, slightly ahead. $BYD COMPANY (01211.HK)$ 。

Additionally, according to the latest statistics from Tesla China, the sales volume of Tesla in the largest electric vehicle market in the world grew significantly by 12.8% in December compared to the previous month, reaching a historical monthly record of 0.083 million vehicles. Based on sales statistics, in 2024, Tesla delivered up to 36.7% of Tesla brand battery electric vehicles to its second-largest market, China.

However, Tesla's global delivery volume for Tesla brand all-electric vehicles unexpectedly declined by 1.1%, failing to meet the stronger growth pace predicted earlier by Tesla's CEO and the world's richest man, Elon Musk. A significant reduction in electric vehicle subsidies in Europe, persistently high inflation in the USA, and market shifts toward cheaper hybrid and gasoline vehicles under the pressure of high interest rates, along with fierce competitive pressure from new global electric vehicle players, greatly impacted Tesla's global delivery volume.

The total global electric vehicle sales volume for Tesla in 2024 is approximately 1.79 million vehicles, still slightly ahead of BYD, whose global electric vehicle sales increased by 12.1% to about 1.76 million vehicles. For the year, Tesla's total delivery volume was 1.79 million vehicles, down 1.1% year-on-year, lower than the 1.806 million vehicles predicted by 19 analysts according to LSEG statistics. This also marks the first instance in Tesla's delivery history where there was a year-on-year decline in delivery volume.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Tesla delivered 471,930 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, as well as 23,640 other models, including the Model S sedan, Cybertruck, and Model X luxury SUV. In the same quarter, its vehicle production was 459,445 units. Tesla delivered a total of 495,570 vehicles in the fourth quarter, which, although it set a record high for deliveries, was slightly lower than the forecast of 498,000 from Analysts.

Facing a weak trend in global demand due to the withdrawal of subsidies and fierce competitive pressure from Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers, this USA-based electric vehicle giant reduced its global workforce last year and scaled back its sales team in China.

As the price war for electric vehicles in the China market enters its third year, Tesla has extended the discount period for outstanding loans on the best-selling Model Y to 0.01 million yuan (approximately $1,369.99) and extended the zero-interest financing period for some Model 3 and Model Y vehicles to five years until the end of this month.

"The Trump 2.0 era" is about to arrive, and will Tesla's stock price surge toward the $500 mark.

With Trump poised to return to the White House, the approval progress of Tesla's FSD and Robotaxi may accelerate. Dan Ives, a senior Analyst from Wedbush and his team, believe that Trump's return to the White House will completely change the narrative for Tesla and CEO Musk's companies in the coming years regarding AI, Self-Driving Cars, and Tesla's AI supercomputing system.

In Ives' team's view, after Trump's return to the presidency, the future approval progress of the U.S. federal government regarding Tesla's FSD fully autonomous driving and Robotaxi completely unmanned autonomous taxis may see significant acceleration.

Ives's team emphasizes: "We estimate that the development opportunities in AI and Self-Driving for Tesla alone are worth 1 trillion dollars. We fully expect that under Trump's leadership of the new USA government, these key initiatives will be expedited. Because Trump once promised to let Musk lead the so-called Government Efficiency Committee to oversee the efficiency of federal government operations, the federal regulatory spider web that Tesla encountered in the past few years around FSD/AIsupercomputer-based Self-Driving will be significantly cleared in the new era under Trump's leadership."

As Musk has long described, Tesla is not just an electric vehicle manufacturer; it is also a leader in the field of AI, especially in AI-based Self-Driving Cars.

$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$CEO Jensen Huang generously praised Tesla's FSD created by AI supercomputing during a media interview. "Tesla is leading the globe in Self-Driving Cars. The truly revolutionary aspect of Tesla's fully autonomous vehicles is that it is an end-to-end generative model. It learns how to automate driving end-to-end by watching videos—surround videos—and uses generative AI technology to predict paths, as well as how to understand and drive the car. Therefore, this technology is indeed revolutionary, and the work Tesla is doing is incredible."

The fully autonomous taxis (i.e. Robotaxi) that the market anticipates from Tesla will be based on the fully upgraded AI supercomputing FSD technology. Tesla envisions these self-driving cars handling various complex Transportation tasks without human intervention, including large-scale passenger transport, and these vehicles will be integrated into Tesla's broader AI and electric vehicle Global Strategy. However, the widespread deployment of Robotaxi requires comprehensive approval from US and other country regulatory authorities for FSD fully self-driving and Robotaxi road testing.

According to reports, Wedbush has significantly raised its 12-month price target for Tesla from $400 to $515 in its latest report, making it the highest price target on Wall Street. The firm also provided a bull market price target of $650 under an "optimistic scenario," which would bring Tesla's Market Cap to approximately $2.1 trillion.

As of Thursday's close of trading in the US, Tesla’s stock closed at $379.28, with a remarkable increase of 56% since Trump’s victory in November. Additionally, Wedbush also predicts$Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$that the Nasdaq Composite Index will reach 25,000 points within 18 months, and Tesla will become the "biggest winner on the mountaintop" thanks to Musk's unparalleled influence in both the political and business worlds.

In terms of delivery volume, although the 2024 delivery volume has not met market expectations, the Analyst team led by Dan Ives at Wedbush is very confident in Tesla's ability to increase delivery volume rapidly in 2025. Wedbush predicts that Tesla's target delivery growth rate will be 20%-30%. Additionally, the Institution expects Tesla to launch a lower-priced electric vehicle model in early 2025, which could be a potential catalyst for increasing Tesla's overall electric vehicle delivery volume.

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