Hey everybody Rob Maurer here and today we've got some news on Tesla's advertising efforts. We've also got a couple of analyst updates, some news on Tesla energy and a few other items as well.
Pretty nice day for the stock today, Tesla up 1.5% closing at $263.62 while the Nasdaq was up 6.10% on the day. As a reminder, just a quick look at the calendar. Tomorrow we will get the PPI or producer price index report before market open. That'll follow on Thursday with the CPI report. Those will both be very interesting as we're actually only three weeks away from the next FOMC meeting already.
We did get a couple of revised price targets from analysts today as analysts have started to update their models after the production and delivery report ahead of Q3 earnings next week. I don't have the note but UBS dropped their price target from $290 before now to $266 and Jeffries also dropped their price target from $265 down to $250. They still have a hold rating on the stock. In their note they said that quote, we continue to think that everything Tesla does differently from the rest of the industry can also be done by others if given time, making speed essential to maintain an edge. The latter seems to have been eroding from product features.
So obviously that's framed pretty negatively. It's not really all that different than what Elon has said in the past though that pace of innovation is really what matters. And if product features is your proxy for that then I suppose it's reasonable to say that sure maybe we're in a little bit of a lull there but I don't really think that's a good way to look at it. I mean you could look at the specs of a vehicle for Rivian, you could look at the specs of a vehicle for Tesla and say oh they're in the same ballpark but you've got to also look at profitability which immediately throws that comparison out the window and you would think for an analyst that would be top of mind rather than surface level analysis of product features but even there we're on the threshold of exciting things with Project Thailand, with Cybertruck, with Semi, with FST beta 12. Still plenty of things to be excited about but these things do happen in waves. This is no different than Tesla's history where you go from Model S to Model X to Model 3. All those periods take a long time when you sit there and watch it day by day but when you look at a decade of progress while it happens relatively quickly.
We've already seen numerous signs of the EV pressure that other automakers are under right now. With Tesla the direction couldn't be clearer with a lot of other automakers it's really up in the air right now so day to day those things can be tough to really appreciate but they should not be brushed aside in favor of quote unquote product features. So I guess we'll be appreciative of Jeffery's reminding us of that in around about wet.
All right next we seem to have an update on Tesla's advertising efforts of course so far we have talked about a few Google AdWords ads that Tesla has selectively placed and that seems to have pretty much been the extent of it so far but we now have a new video from Omar0717 on X that shows a video of what seems to be a Tesla advertisement playing at the Tokyo International Airport on what looks to be about seven or eight big screens in the terminal. The videos show off some of Tesla's features like autopilot, supercharging etc. There are QR codes that can be scanned that presumably take you to Tesla's website to learn more about it. I don't think I see anything on pricing and it may mention something about the Model Y being a best-selling car.
So unlike some of the other things that we have seen that kind of looked like advertising but maybe Tesla didn't actually set up this one does seem like it would have to have been led by the company. No way to really know for sure but it does appear that way. Probably not what a lot of the suggestions of advertising had in mind initially but it is interesting to see how Tesla is kind of taking these baby steps into it and testing out some presumably pretty low-cost ways of advertising which hopefully gives them some pretty good insight on the ROI of these efforts before potentially expanding and increasing budget.
We'll continue to keep an eye out for any more of those and if you happen to be in the Tokyo International Airport if you can take a look at that and see if you can spot these if for no other reason than to see how long Tesla keeps these running. Obviously their digital could be a cycling thing with other advertisers also using that space.
Alright next we've got an update on Tesla energy from the Tesla Mega Pack account on X. They've shared a video that the 150 megawatt or 300 megawatt hour edify energy Tesla Mega Pack has been activated and now fully operational in Riverina and Darlington Point in Australia. The video also points out that this is the largest approved grid-forming battery in Australia's national electricity market which relies on a Mega Pack feature called Tesla's virtual machine mode which we've talked about before. Virtual machine mode virtually emulates the physical or mechanical inertia that is present in traditional power sources for the grid due to the reliance on heavy rotating equipment that tends to stay rotating for a period of time. If you replace a power source like that with something like a battery you lose that inertia so virtual machine mode emulates that which helps improve grid stability as Tesla is noting here. So always nice to see these updates and although this news is in Q4 we'll definitely look forward to the Q3 energy numbers in the earnings report next week.
Another really quick piece of energy storage news the Netherlands government has recently allocated just over 400 million euros for the installation of batteries to be paired with solar projects. So I'm sure some of that funding although unclear how much will probably end up going towards Tesla products.
Alright next we've got a report from the information which has at times provided some spotty information regarding Tesla but this is a fairly basic report it would seem. They are reporting that quote at Tesla's headquarters in Austin Texas a new bunker like structure is under construction that could one day help move the company beyond electric vehicle manufacturing. When it's completed the building will house part of a new supercomputer known as dojo that Tesla is assembling to help run the artificial intelligence software behind the self-driving capabilities in its vehicles according to two people familiar with the project end quote. So I guess probably not too surprising that Tesla would want to have at least part of the physical hardware of dojo there in Texas it's probably a little bit cheaper to operate there plus just having it on site I would imagine there are some benefits to that the rest of the article is paywalled so I'm not sure if there are any other interesting details within this report but we'll keep an eye out for updates I wouldn't be too surprised Joe Tegmeyer hadn't already been all over this anyway.
Alright next we've just got a quick update on the iG metal report we talked about relating to gigabrolin yesterday. Tesla has now more formally responded they've rejected claims by the union and that have been made in the media which have suggested that health and safety provisions at the factory were not adequate. Obviously this is a topic that we've got a decent amount of data from on Tesla from the impact report something we hear from them pretty consistently on but in a written statement they said that workers receive training on necessary safety measures as well as protective clothing and that the factory is subject to checks from local authorities to make sure that safety measures are being followed so no surprises there I don't know how impactful a press release like this really is but I know sometimes people wish for a little bit more proactive PR from Tesla and this would be a case of one of those types of things.
Next we've got updated China insured vehicle numbers for the week of October 2nd through October 8th this week the number did drop to just a thousand so quite a low number but obviously this is the first week of the quarter and for October this is golden week in China so like we had talked about last year at this time and that's going to affect things as well last year in the first week there was only 2,000 vehicles insured so nothing surprising here especially as we continue to wait for highland deliveries to begin.
Next we've got another v4 supercharger update from supercharger.info on X they've noticed yet another v4 project in the US this one is in Alabama so looks like we're now seeing a number of these in the US we'll continue to keep an eye on it but exciting to see that expansion happening.
Another quick one for today for some reason there's been a photo going around of an old cyber truck that had been photoshopped matte black or black back in April resurfacing to a wide extent today so just a reminder that is an old photo and it is photoshop so nothing new there with the cyber truck showing up as black.
All right and then the last few items we've got a couple other automaker updates the first is from Unifor the Canadian Auto Workers Union we talked before about how they had reached an agreement with Ford a few weeks ago they have now after just a very short 12 hour strike with GM reached a similar agreement with GM so two of the big three in Canada although this is still pending finalization and then we'll wait to see of course what happens with Unifor and Stellantis and Canada and then just a couple of quick ones from last week Toyota and LG have announced that they have reached a battery supply agreement for lithium-ion batteries to be used in Toyota BEVs in the United States with the LG batteries being assembled in the US apparently this contract will begin in 2025 at an annual capacity of 20 gigawatt hours interestingly they do say these will be nickel based packs but pouch type cells rather than cylindrical like we would see Tesla use for that chemistry and then finally Renault has announced an investor day for their future EV company named Ampere on November 15th they have previously said that they do plan to spin this out separately list this company on the stock exchange sometime in early 2024 at maybe somewhere around a 10 billion dollar valuation so we'll keep an eye on that for next month but that'll wrap it up for today as always thank you for listening make sure you're subscribed and signed up for notifications and also find me on x at Tesla podcast and we'll see you tomorrow for the Wednesday October 11th episode of Tesla Daily thank you.