Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is expected to make 500,000 electric vehicles a year by 2024. This is what the Chairman and CEO of Panasonic, Joe Taylor said at the Consumer Electronics Show 2015. Tesla manufactured around 35,000 units last year, and a target of 500,000 units represents a 15X growth.
Gigafactory to help achieve target
In the state of Nevada a massive production plant with huge investment is being built by Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Panasonic which is called the Gigafactory. The two companies are jointly building a $5 billion production facility, and with its help they hope to achieve the target. The plant will be used specifically for the production of lithium-ion batteries at the lowest possible cost for Tesla’s cars. Battery cells currently used in the Model S are being built by the two companies jointly, and Panasonic is all prepared to invest tens of billions of yen in the project.
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has not been able to grow as expected because of the battery costs. Tesla hopes to bring down the battery production costs by nearly 30% with the new Gigafactory, which will be spread in an area of 10 million square feet, and is scheduled for opening in 2017 and employ over 6,500 people.
Will Tesla achieve its sales goal?
Recently, Adam Jonas, a prominent automotive industry analyst at the Morgan Stanley, has cut down his price target on Tesla by a huge margin. Jonas believe that the company would not be able to meet its selling target of 500,000 vehicles by 2024. He feels that Tesla will fall short by 40% and thus only 300,000 units will be sold. The goal set by Tesla is seen by Jonas as unrealistic, and hence he feels that the company won’t be able to achieve it.
Besides Jonas there are several other analysts having a similar opinion about Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock, and find it overvalued. Even Musk has been found saying so on several occasions. Though the goal set by the company may be ambitious, but going by the reputation of its CEO the possibility of missing it by a huge margin of 40% appears to be very less.
