{"id":45104,"date":"2013-12-06T19:18:53","date_gmt":"2013-12-07T00:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/?p=45104"},"modified":"2013-12-06T19:18:53","modified_gmt":"2013-12-07T00:18:53","slug":"why-tesla-could-soon-be-the-best-buy-on-the-nasdaq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2013\/12\/06\/why-tesla-could-soon-be-the-best-buy-on-the-nasdaq\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Tesla Could Soon Be the Best Buy on the NASDAQ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"http:\/\/www.MoneyMorning.com.au\" target=\"_blank\"><u>MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You might have noticed the <strong>Tesla Motors [NASDAQ:TSLA]<\/strong> share price  over the past month. It has gone from the darling child of the NASDAQ to one of  the most volatile companies you can<a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/category\/investments\/how-to-invest\" title=\"how to invest\"> invest in<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It peaked at just over $193 at the end of  September. The calls were for $200+. But on the flip side there were many  (including me) who felt the stock was overvalued.<\/p>\n<p>To give you a comparison, <strong>Tesla<\/strong> is on  track to ship about 21,000Model S cars this year. Audi on the other hand is on  track to ship about 1.57 <em>million<\/em> cars  by the end of September. <\/p>\n<p>In short, Tesla ships about 1.3% of the  volume that Audi ships.<\/p>\n<p>And yet Tesla&#8217;s market cap is currently  $17 billion, while Audi&#8217;s is about $28 billion. It&#8217;s pretty easy to see the  difference here. The sales numbers clearly don&#8217;t stack up. <\/p>\n<p>However that doesn&#8217;t mean Tesla should  only be worth 1.3% of the value of Audi. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/category\/technology-and-innovation\" title=\"more on technology\">technology<\/a> Tesla provides is  cutting edge. In fact it&#8217;s world class. Industry leading. Pioneering.<\/p>\n<p>I believe Tesla will soon be the best buy  on the NASDAQ.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s because, as I see it Tesla is the  best carmaker in the world. But for likely self-serving interests, it seems the  US is hell-bent on quashing this amazing, homegrown company.<\/p>\n<p>It started back when Tesla decided to  adopt the &#8216;Apple&#8217; sales method. By that I mean Tesla planned to sell cars  directly to the public. Open up a Tesla shopfront, sell the cars. Simple.<\/p>\n<p>No need for dealers, no need to inflate  prices. No need for a middleman. It&#8217;s the business model of the modern era. Cut  out multiple handling of products and pass on the benefits to the consumers.<\/p>\n<p>Except a few states have a problem with  this. Namely Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire,  Massachusetts, Virginia and North Carolina. There are ongoing legislative  battles preventing Tesla from selling their cars directly to the public.<\/p>\n<p>Car dealers want a slice of the pie, but  Tesla doesn&#8217;t want to give it to them. Nor should they. The battle seems to be  in favour of the car dealers too. And it&#8217;s no coincidence that car dealers have spent over  $130 million in state and federal political lobbying compared to the paltry  $500,000 spent by Tesla. <\/p>\n<p>But sales methods are just one aspect of  the battle facing Tesla.<\/p>\n<p>It seems as though US lawmakers are really  afraid of things they don&#8217;t understand. Maybe that&#8217;s why <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneymorning.com.au\/20131130\/23andme-and-the-witch-hunt-over-your-dna.html\" title=\"23andme and The Witch Hunt over Your DNA\">23andme<\/a> are in trouble  also &mdash; more on that another day.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway Tesla had a bit of PR misfortune  recently when three of their cars caught fire in the space of five weeks. <\/p>\n<p>This sent the stock price into a tailspin.  Not only that, but the good old National Highway Traffic Safety Administration  (NHTSA) decided to stick its nose into this media inferno. It&#8217;s investigating  if the Model S is safe and whether the car has any design flaws.<\/p>\n<h2>Here&#8217;s Something Worth Noting<\/h2>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>All three Model S fires were kept out of  the passenger cell. So no flames entered the passenger compartment. In all  three accidents the car was able to instruct the driver to pull over, and exit  the vehicle. And all three drivers believe the Model S design actually saved  their lives.<\/p>\n<p>The US National Fire Protection  Association lists in their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nfpa.org\/~\/media\/Files\/Research\/Fact%20sheets\/FireLossFacts.pdf\">2012 fact sheet<\/a> that in 2012 there were 172,500 car fires  in the U.S. <\/p>\n<p>Of those 172,500 there were 300 fatalities  and 800 injuries. The estimated damage bill was $1.1 billion. That equates to  one highway vehicle fire every <em>182  seconds.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Since Tesla released the Model S to market  in 2012 they&#8217;ve had three fires. And no fatalities.<\/p>\n<p>In the official Tesla Blog on their  website Elon Musk said this about the Model S, <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8216;<em>An average of one fire per at  least 6,333 cars, compared to the rate for gasoline vehicles of one fire per  1,350 cars. By this metric, you are more than four and a half times more likely  to experience a fire in a gasoline car than a Model S!<\/em>&#8216; <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Yet the NHTSA wants to investigate <strong>Tesla cars<\/strong> for design flaws? Seriously?<\/p>\n<p>But it goes further. The Germans have  decided they want in on the act too. Try to figure this one out&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The three Tesla fires occurred in,  Seattle, Tennessee and Mexico. And because of this the German Federal Motor  Transport Authority was concerned. They basically asked Tesla for a &#8216;please  explain?&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the investigations from both  the NHTSA and &#8216;Ze Germans&#8217; have come up with nothing. There&#8217;s no design flaw in  the Model S. In fact they&#8217;re unbelievably safe cars. Safer than most petrol  cars.<\/p>\n<p>But the negative publicity from these  fires is beyond belief. It&#8217;s as though the government is doing everything it  can to find a weakness in Tesla.<\/p>\n<p>Put it like this. If Tesla continues on  its way they plan to have two more electric vehicles (EV&#8217;s) come to market over  the next few years. One of those is an affordable priced sedan for the masses.  An affordable electric car has been Tesla&#8217;s primary goal all along. <\/p>\n<p>And as EV&#8217;s become more common around the  world, it means some lean times for petroleum companies. That could also mean  some pretty lean times for companies like Exxon Mobil, BP and Total SA. <\/p>\n<p>Now I&#8217;m going to speculate here, but my  guess is that there are a lot of &#8216;pro-oil&#8217; politicians in the US Congress. Just  a stab in the dark there&#8230; Not to suggest any kind of political corruption of  course. But well, put two and two together and sometimes you can get five.<\/p>\n<p>There is literally billions at stake for  carmakers, but also petroleum companies as the world goes &#8216;EV&#8217;. For the  stockholders, it&#8217;s a worrying time.<\/p>\n<p>Tesla is certainly in for a long,  protracted fight in a highly profitable market. So far they&#8217;ve come through  each battle with flying colours. And in my opinion they will continue to do so.<\/p>\n<p>I get the impression that Musk is up for  the fight. In fact these roadblocks likely spur him on even more to make Tesla  a success.<\/p>\n<p>But watch this space. There&#8217;s a strong  tide pushing against Tesla. And at the right time it will present as a  brilliant buying opportunity. Because everyone will hate the company, but from  what I can see, they&#8217;ll still be the best carmaker in the world.<\/p>\n<p>And if that perfect storm comes around,  Tesla will be the best buy on the NASDAQ. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Volkering<a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/u\/0\/111160335563076067119\/about\">+<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\n    <strong>Technology  Analyst, <em>Revolutionary Tech Investor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ed Note:<\/strong> Remember to complete the quick three question  survey on the proposed daily tech eletter. It shouldn&#8217;t take more than two  minutes to complete. Your feedback will be a big help in deciding whether we  proceed with this project. You can complete the survey <a href=\"https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/s\/techmoneymorning\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/106516983215198267222\/about\" title=\"Join Money Morning on Google Plus -- and read about the things we can't always fit into our regular essays\"><u>Join Money Morning on Google+ <\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?a=Zg68tlrFHcY:_14ApsLbrQA:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?a=Zg68tlrFHcY:_14ApsLbrQA:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?i=Zg68tlrFHcY:_14ApsLbrQA:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?a=Zg68tlrFHcY:_14ApsLbrQA:gIN9vFwOqvQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/MoneyMorningAustralia?i=Zg68tlrFHcY:_14ApsLbrQA:gIN9vFwOqvQ\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/MoneyMorningAustralia\/~4\/Zg68tlrFHcY\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" \/><br \/>\nBy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.MoneyMorning.com.au\" target=\"_blank\"><u>MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By MoneyMorning.com.au You might have noticed the Tesla Motors [NASDAQ:TSLA] share price over the past month. It has gone from the darling child of the NASDAQ to one of the most volatile companies you can invest in. It peaked at just over $193 at the end of September. The calls were for $200+. But on &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2013\/12\/06\/why-tesla-could-soon-be-the-best-buy-on-the-nasdaq\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Why Tesla Could Soon Be the Best Buy on the NASDAQ&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}