Tesla plans to unveil its robotaxi on Aug 8, according to a statement from chief executive officer Elon Musk on X, his social media site.
The announcement follows the shockingly low quarterly sales figures from Tesla this week.
The number of cars Tesla sold in the first quarter missed Wall Street’s expectations by a wide margin — Tesla sold about 387,000 cars in the first quarter, while analysts on average thought that number would be around 449,000.
“There is not a lot of visibility on where Tesla’s next leg of growth will be – whether EVs or its other projects,” said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research. “If you are going to command a premium multiple you will have to have great earnings visibility or a fantastic story on why those earnings will show up in the future. Tesla has neither at the moment.”
The growth issue around Tesla has become so sensitive, that a report on Friday saying the company was getting rid of its low-cost EV plans – which were considered key to fixing its demand problem – sent the stock tumbling more than 6%.
Musk rushed to refute the story on X, which erased roughly half the decline but still left it as the heaviest weight on the S& for the session.
After the market closed, Musk said the company will unveil its “robotaxi” on Aug 8, causing a rally in after-hours trading.
