Tesla is on track to clinch a steady weekly Model 3 production rate above 5,000 cars per week, according to Evercore ISI, which told clients that its prior estimates for the second half could be as much as 7 percent too low following a tour of the company’s facilities.
“Tesla seems well on the way to achieving a steady weekly production rate of 5,000 to 6,000 units per week,” analyst George Galliers wrote Thursday. “We are incrementally positive on Tesla following our visit. We have confidence in their production. We did not see anything to suggest that Model 3 cannot reach 6k units per week, and 7k to 8k with very little incremental capital expenditure.”
The upbeat comments from Galliers come amid a growing scandal for Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, who recently tweeted that he would be privatizing the electric automaker at $420 per share.
“Focusing on the fundamentals and setting aside talk of privatization, we are incrementally positive on Tesla following our visit,” the analyst said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has served Tesla with a subpeona following Musk’s claim that the funding to take the company off the public market has already been secured, according to The New York Times.
Evercore has an inline rating on Tesla’s shares and a $301 price target; the stock closed Wednesday at $338.69 and was up about 1 percent in premarket trading Thursday.
