Remember when we all thought by 2020 we’d be driving around in electric cars or taking a hoverboard to work? The reality hasn’t turned out quite as we had planned. But while Back to the Future was a little bit ahead of itself, the way we are travelling is changing.
If you’ve ever taken an Uber, its likely you’ve been in a hybrid petrol-electric car. Their fuel economy makes them the taxi driver’s vehicle of choice.
You are less likely to have been in a fully electric vehicle such as the futuristic (and much more expensive) Tesla, however.
Tesla is the best-known make of electric car, primarily due to its rocket scientist founder and chief executive Elon Musk. Never far from publicity, Musk has propelled his electric car design from a doodle in a maths book to run on some of the world’s most cutting-edge technology.
This meteoric rise has been reflected in the company’s share price, rising from $19 when it listed in 2010 to peaking around $390 last year.
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No one, at least in the US, is close to coming up with an alternative to Musk’s design – or found a way to switch their petrol-focused clients to a plug-in car.
The current buzz is around the Model 3, which Tesla claim charges more quickly than any previous versions and has seen the company take more than 40,000 pre-orders.
But Tesla has become a victim of its own success, with investors shunning the stock earlier this year as the company announced it could not keep pace with demand and deliveries of new cars were being delayed.
Additionally, demand is being stymied to a certain extent by the lack of infrastructure to support electric vehicles. While petrol stations are a frequent sight along our roads and motorways, charging points are few and far between, with little to do to while away the time it takes to re-juice your car.
Tesla’s superstar CEO has also got the company (and himself) into hot water with US financial regulators around some erroneous tweeting about the ownership of Tesla in 2018. Investors are watching and waiting to see the fall out of that.
But despite the production line delays, lack of infrastructure and suspect tweeting, analysts see the Tesla stock rising after slumping since the start of the year as the general public – with the encouragement from governments – start shifting from their gas-guzzling traditions.
It could be time to start the electric engine on your portfolio and buy while the stock is idling.
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