Tesla Stock Rises After Record Car Deliveries; Analyst Says Company Is “Underselling” Self-Driving Capabilities Of Its Upcoming Model 3

Over the weekend Tesla revealed that it has released more than expected number of its Model car variant deliveries for the first quarter of 2017.

BGR reports that during the first three months of this year, Tesla made over 25,000 deliveries, surpassing analysts’ expectations between 23,000-24,000 units. The deliveries were of Model S (13, 450 units), and Model X (11,550 units), easily beating the previous quarter’s record of 14,820 units at 69% more. The record also highlighted the Elon Musk-helmed company’s streamlined production process, as well as the demand for its vehicles.

The good news may have interested existing and new investors to put more faith in the company, which led to the stock’s value increasing to another record, essentially beating industry veteran Ford Motor Co. The valuation prompted Musk to taunt its early adopters who have short-sold their shares in the company in a tweet, and why not, considering that your company’s value grew to about USD48.2 billion. Bloomberg said the valuation is a whopping USD3.1 billion more than the number two automaker in the United States next to General Motors Co..

Ben Kallo, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. posits that the faith may be merely on the company and not exactly on the cars. He said, “I don’t know if people want electric cars, but people want Tesla. I’m not an Elon Musk worshiper, but people that would normally buy a Porsche are buying Teslas right now.”

The news came ahead of the highly-anticipated release of the new Model 3. Although Musk downplayed the new car’s features, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas believes Tesla is strategically ‘underselling” its Model 3 so that its demand will not cannibalize the electric car demand, particularly the demand commanded by its predecessors, CNBC reported.

He reasoned, “(The Model 3 could have at least 19 sensors, collecting information that) will be analyzed by a liquid cooled [Nvidia] supercomputer that is 40x more powerful than the original Autopilot system."

Expected to be in production by July, Model 3 shipments will be shipped before the year end, and will retail at USD35,000.