Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, attends the Viva Technology conference at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on June 16, 2023.
Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters
Tesla shares rose more than 5% on Monday after the electric vehicle maker posted a teaser video on X sparking speculation that the company could be gearing up to release a new car.
The first video posted on Sunday shows a spinning component which many online said could be an internal component of a vehicle. The video ends with the numbers “10/7,” indicating Tuesday’s date.
A second video also posted on Sunday shows just the headlights of a car.
The teasers have sparked conversation online and among analysts about what Tesla is up to — and two theories have emerged.
The first is that it could be the next-generation Roadster vehicle that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been promising for years.
The second is that Tesla could be about to unveil a long-awaited mass market model.
Musk teased the next-generation Roadster concept back at an event in November 2017, and in June 2018 in a series of tweets.
The billionaire has since hyped the vehicle repeatedly and, in September, said on X that “the new Roadster is something special beyond a car.”
Musk has a history of promising things that are either not delivered or take substantially longer than he initially says.
Meanwhile, Tesla has been saying a cheaper mass-market car will hit the market this year. However, Musk has confirmed this lower cost offering will effectively be a stripped down Model Y.
For investors, a mass-market model is seen as key to revitalizing Tesla’s sales. While Tesla reported a jump in auto deliveries in the third quarter of the year, this was attributed to a pull forward in demand due to the expiration of a federal tax credit. In the quarter before, Tesla reported a delivery decline.
The company has seen a continuous slump in sales in Europe, and it continues to face heavy competition in China, another key market, from local players like BYD which are also expanding overseas.
Chinese players have been launching low-cost offerings in Europe and elsewhere putting more pressure on Tesla to released a model at around the $25,000 to $30,000 mark.
Tesla shares have rallied back after a brutal first quarter, in which the stock sank 36%. After rallying 40% in the third quarter, the stock is now up 12% for the year.
