Proactive Investors - Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA, ETR:TL0) is likely to face further pressure on the back of competition from Chinese electric vehicle makers and a wider slowdown in demand for such cars, UBS has warned.
Elon Musk’s carmaker should remain the world’s largest electric vehicle brand over the coming year, but deliveries will likely be flat against 2023, UBS said in a note, after surveying on trends in the industry.
“Given the survey results show outside of China, a continued plateau in EV demand and inside of China, more competition, we view the results as headwinds to Tesla unit growth over the coming years,” analysts said.
A higher proportion of US consumers were said to have indicated Tesla would be their top choice this year, though this was against a backdrop of “stagnant” demand, according to UBS.
China’s BYD is set to overtake Tesla as the country’s top-choice battery electric vehicle maker this year, after briefly surpassing Elon Musk’s firm globally at the end of last year.
UBS added that younger surveyed respondents generally favoured Tesla’s cybertruck, which the bank noted was likely “aspirational” for many given the price tag.
A lower price for Tesla’s full self-driving technology will also likely be needed to drive demand, UBS said.
Analysts doubled down on forecasts for 1.88 million to 2.07 million Tesla deliveries for the year, which at the lower end of the range would be just above last year’s 1.81 million sales.