Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares fell more than 7% in Friday’s pre-market trades in the wake of Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company’s hotly anticipated robotaxi reveal.
Unveiling the new driverless ‘Cybercab’ at a glitzy Hollywood event, Elon Musk and Co declared that deliveries should commence by the end of 2025 with a surprisingly small price tag of $30,000.
The Cybercab is fully self-driving and does not have a steering wheel or foot pedals.
Musk had more surprises up his sleeve- a 20-seater Robovan and a humanoid robot called Optimus that can mix drinks (and other tasks, presumably).
“You can have your own personal R2D2 or C3PO,” Musk declared, as a conga line of faceless droids marched out from backstage.
Each Optimus is expected to sell for $30,000.
The procession of unveilings had a distinct ‘the future is now' vibe, writ large with Tesla’s minimalist stylings that should be fodder for the Tesla bulls.
So why did the share price fall?
Long-time Tesla bull Wedbush said: “We totally agree that ideally Musk and Tesla should have spent more time on details around this strategic autonomous vision and that will naturally weigh on shares this morning as a knee-jerk reaction.
“That said, we strongly disagree with the notion that last night was a disappointment as we would argue the opposite seeing Cybercab with our own eyes and the massive improvements in Optimus which we interacted with throughout the evening.”
Robotaxi & Robovan pic.twitter.com/pI2neyJBSL
— Tesla (@Tesla) October 11, 2024
There was also an element of disappointment at the lack of a Tesla Model 2 unveiling, which is being hyped as an affordable entry-level electric vehicle that could see Tesla reclaim market share from its Chinese rivals.
Wedbush stated: “The elephant in the room this morning is no discussion or introduction of Model 2, the lower cost highly anticipated next generation Tesla model expected in 2025.
“We never expected this to happen at this event and this is no way an indication that Model 2 is not happening for 2025.
We believe this is also weighing on shares as the bears try to press this narrative.”