Global financial services firm Morgan Stanley has cut its ratings on Tesla Motors shares from $70 to $44, shifting from Overweight to Underweight.
Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas has downgraded Tesla shares because electric vehicle (EV) adoption is not taking off as a whole.
"While we're still in the very innings of vehicle electrification, the commercial progress of EVs in the marketplace has been mixed at best, and largely been unimpressive to date," said Morgan Stanley's research note according to Business Insider. "In the U.S. market, we estimate total sales of xEVs (plug-in hybrids and pure EVs) to reach 18k units. While only slightly below our 19k expectation earlier in the year, it makes a real-time deceleration in the U.S. market. Globally, the picture is worse. We expect xEV sales to reach 47k units in 2011, nearly 30 percent below our prior estimate of 64k."
Morgan Stanley added that Nissan Leaf sales have fallen three months in a row now, and that the Chevrolet Volt has missed its target of 10,000 sales in 2011. In addition, the Volt has had some bad press due to its latest battery fire issues discovered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in May of this year and again in November tests.
Jonas redirected the focus to Tesla in a research note that focuses on Morgan Stanley's concerns with Tesla specifically, but mentioned that the auto company was able to pull off a "near flawless execution" of the Model S pre-production phase.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
