Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) unveiled its much-anticipated fiscal Q1 2024 report on Tuesday, which showed that the electric vehicle (EV) giant experienced its largest revenue decline since 2012, with a 9% drop in first-quarter earnings, falling short of analysts' expectations.
But despite worse-than-expected numbers, Tesla's stock rose notably in premarket trading, driven by an announcement by CEO Elon Musk that the production of new, more affordable electric vehicle models might start earlier than anticipated.
The stock surged over 12% ahead of the market open.
To be more specific, Musk said that Tesla plans to initiate production of new models "early 2025, if not late this year," moving up from the previously anticipated second half of 2025.
Moreover, the billionaire also talked about Tesla's investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure and mentioned that the company is currently in discussions with "one major automaker" to license its FSD driver assistance system.
“Last night in a much needed conference call Elon Musk finally stepped up as the adult in the room and laid the foundation for Tesla's growth strategy with most importantly a lower cost vehicle now slated for 2025 production and delivery,” analysts at Wedbush said in a note.
“The bears so far in 2024 have won this battle and been very right....but we believe the next wave of the Tesla growth story and autonomous vision is now forming and that is what we are focused on for our bullish investment thesis looking ahead,” they added.
Wedbush maintained an Outperform rating TSLA but lowered the target price from $300 to $275.