Tesla’s ‘jaw dropper’ delivery numbers supercharge EV stocks

By Esha Dey

Tesla Inc.’s stellar first-quarter delivery numbers stood out amid a difficult backdrop of the auto industry struggling with a semiconductor shortage, and gave a fresh lease on life to stocks of electric-vehicle companies on Monday.

Shares of Elon Musk-led Tesla jumped as much as 7% in New York, erasing its year-to-date loss. Nio Inc., XPeng Inc. and Li Auto Inc. were all higher as well, along with other EV-related companies like ChargePoint Holdings Inc. and Beam Global.

The group has received some good news over the past week, including a big push into electric vehicles in the infrastructure spending bill unveiled by U.S. President Joe Biden, and the estimate-crushing delivery figures from Tesla. Together, they have helped boost investor enthusiasm for the space, which experienced weakness in the first three months of the year amid a wider selloff in technology stocks.


Tesla on Friday said it delivered 184,800 cars worldwide for the first quarter of the year, outpacing the 169,850 average of analysts’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

“These delivery numbers are a paradigm and sentiment shifter for the space going forward,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note, calling Tesla’s delivery numbers a “jaw dropper.” He also said the recent brutal selloff in the space may now be in the rear-view mirror.

Several other Wall Street analysts raised their estimates and price target on Tesla after the sales results. JPMorgan Chase analyst Ryan Brinkman said its ability to produce roughly the same amount of vehicles in the first quarter as in the last three months of 2020, stands out in the industry, given global light vehicle production is estimated to have declined about 16% sequentially in the same period because of the chip shortage.