This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
After last week's decisive presidential election in the US, and the critical role played by Elon Musk in bringing about a favorable outcome for Trump, Wall Street analysts continue to mull the short- and medium-term implications for Tesla shares in a Trump-led administration.
For instance, last week, BofA analysts admitted in a dedicated investment note that Tesla might see potential upside going forward vis-à-vis "the federal regulation of autonomous vehicles and FSD, which aligns with Elon Musk’s push for a national standard for self-driving," adding:
"The Trump administration’s approach could create a more favorable regulatory landscape, potentially accelerating Tesla’s Robotaxi deployment in 2025 by easing state-by-state regulatory burdens."
BofA analysts also believe that Tesla might benefit from relaxed emissions standards in the Trump administration 2.0 and stringent restrictions on China-made EVs, which should push back the aggressive electrification plans of legacy automakers in the US, thereby allowing Tesla the "room to expand its market share."
We are raising our price target on Tesla to $400 from $300 as we believe the Trump White House win will be a gamechanger for the autonomous and AI story for Tesla and Musk over the coming years. We estimate the AI/autonomous opportunity is worth $1 trillion alone for Tesla🔥🏆🐂
— Dan Ives (@DivesTech) November 11, 2024
Today, it is Wedbush's turn to expound on what Tesla potentially stands to gain under the Trump presidency. To wit, Wedbush's Dan Ives has now raised his target for Tesla shares by $100 per share to $400, arguing that the "Trump White House win will be a game changer for the autonomous and AI story for Tesla and Musk over the coming years."
Ives goes on to add:
"We estimate the AI and autonomous opportunity is worth $1 trillion alone for Tesla, and we fully expect that, under a Trump White House, these key initiatives will now get fast-tracked as the federal regulatory challenges Musk & Co. have faced around FSD/autonomous are likely to clear significantly in a new Trump era."
Bear in mind that Tesla plans to launch the "completely autonomous" unsupervised FSD for Models S, 3, X, and Y by next year. Additionally, Elon Musk expects the newly revealed Cybercab to reach volume production of 2 million units per year in 2026.
To do so, however, Tesla will first have to bridge the disconnect between the crowdsourced FSD performance data, which currently shows around 100 miles per critical intervention, and Tesla's tall claims of reaching "10K+ miles per critical intervention this year or next," as recently pointed out by none other than Goldman Sachs.
$TSLA: WS wants most to see:
1/ a new $25-$30K vehicle (M-3 hatchback) to compete in the compact category. This expands TSLA TAM similar to Model Y in 2020.2/ Further auto gross margin expansion - no more price cuts
3/ Quarterly data showing incremental improvement in FSD… https://t.co/fPTFwMYfZP
— Gary Black (@garyblack00) November 10, 2024
While Tesla's market cap is now back above the psychologically important $1 trillion level, Future Fund's Gary Black believes that the EV giant will have to show progress in five areas to create an environment for sustainable gains:
- A new sub-$30,000 model apart from the Cybercab
- Auto gross margin expansion
- Improvements in FSD's miles per critical disengagement metric
- The formal launch of the robotaxi play by making available unsupervised autonomy in key markets.
- A new electric pickup truck priced between $35,000 and $40,000.
At the time of writing, Tesla shares are up ~7 percent in pre-market trading. Over the past 5 trading days, the stock has increased by nearly $100 per share.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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