There were some who thought that Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) days of innovation and manic genius were behind it. But there are signs that is not so, and the electric vehicle manufacturer is dealing pretty well with the more mundane issues of everyday operation. That resurgence of innovation, along with the improvements in the basics, is prompting investors to take a new look, sending Tesla up over 1.5% in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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First, Tesla—likely still hearing the warnings from the Big Three auto strike—is planning to hike pay for the Nevada Gigafactory. There were signs that unions were looking to get involved, and Tesla is taking the high road in its response by making the environment unfavorable to unions. Why bother with a union, after all, when you’re already getting regular pay raises and the like? Further, Tesla is planning to streamline its pay scale a bit as well, and that will cause some previously lower-paid workers to get into higher brackets.
Tesla: Your New Electric Truck and Boat
That part is more for the mundane side, though given what we’ve seen in the past, it’s innovative enough in its own right. But for the real innovation, there are reports that Tesla is planning to offer an upgrade kit that will transform the new Cybertruck into an electric boat. The upgrade kit will allow the Cybertruck to traverse in as much as 100 meters of water. Apparently, it won’t be especially difficult; Tesla claims that most of the upgrade kit will be mainly involved in “upgrading the door seals.” Eventually, the project will get a demonstration when it goes between the SpaceX Starbase and Texas’ South Padre Island, a distance of about 1,100 feet.
Is Tesla a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 14 Buys, 13 Holds, and five Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 85.52% rally in its share price over the past year, the average TSLA price target of $245.96 per share implies 3.72% downside risk.
