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Tesla delivered 184,800 vehicles in Q1, blowing past estimates

Tesla stock upgraded by Wedbush after ‘paradigm changer’ delivery numbers

Wedbush’s Ives boosts outlook, sees Tesla’s profitability improving in the coming years

Wedbush Securities has upgraded its outlook for Tesla Inc., following stronger-than-expected quarterly deliveries.

On Sunday, Wedbush raised its price target for Tesla, to $1,000 a share from $950, with a long-term bull-case price of $1,300 a share.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives also changed his rating from hold to outperform.

“In our opinion the 1Q delivery numbers released on Friday was a paradigm changer,” he said in a note.

On Friday, Tesla reported first-quarter deliveries, its proxy for sales, totaling 184,800 vehicles, blowing past the FactSet consensus of 168,000. The Silicon Valley electric-vehicle maker said it produced just over 180,000 vehicles in the period in what Ives called a “drop the mic” number.

“We now believe Tesla could exceed 850k deliveries for the year with 900k a stretch goal, despite the chip shortage and various supply chain issues lingering across the auto sector,” Ives said Sunday.

He added “eye popping delivery numbers coming out of China cannot be ignored with the trajectory on pace to represent ~40% of deliveries for Musk & Co. by 2022.”

Ives and his team also see Tesla’s profitability significantly improving over the next three to four years.

www.marketwatch.com


LG Electronics to get out of the smartphone business

South Korean company to focus on EV components, AI, smart homes and more

Smartphone pioneer LG Electronics will close its mobile unit later this year, in a move to refocus its efforts on higher-growth businesses.

In a statement Sunday night, the South Korean company said its mobile business will be wound down by July 31, though existing inventory may still be available for sale after that.

“LG’s strategic decision to exit the incredibly competitive mobile-phone sector will enable the company to focus resources in growth areas such as electric-vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services,” the company said.



www.marketwatch.com


*To Remind,

LFP on the up

Last month, Benchmark lithium analyst George Miller said “demand for durable, improved, and low-cost LFP cathode material has become rejuvenated in China – a very similar story to what we saw in lithium’s last price run of 2016 but with a much improved product for the 2020s.”

A year ago, Tesla surprised the electric car industry when it announced some Model 3s made in its Shanghai factory will be equipped with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries made by China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).

But the cobalt and nickel free vehicle has been a runaway success. In December, only its second full month of sales, the 55KWh LFP-battery Tesla Model 3 captured 5.9% of the global full electric car market in terms of battery capacity deployed despite not being for sale in the US, according to data supplied by Adamas Intelligence.

Boosted by deliveries to Europe, it made up 46% of all Model 3 sales in January and an astonishing 32% (in December it was 47%) of the battery capacity in all LFP-equipped cars worldwide.

That lifted LFP’s overall share of the global battery market in terms of capacity to 18.5% in January, according to Adamas, which tracks demand for EV batteries by chemistry, cell supplier and capacity in over 90 countries.

www.mining.com/lithium-prices-continue-to-soar-up-88-in-2021/



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Food for thought

Frank