Barclays Pulls No Punches on Tesla: ‘Stalling as a Niche Automaker’

U.K. investment firm Barclays cut its price target for Elon Musk’s Tesla to $150 this week, claiming that the firm is “stalling as a niche automaker.” Barclays analysts believe Musk’s Robotaxi plans are being met with appropriate skepticism as “the blue pill thesis washes away.”

CNBC reports that U.K. investment firm Barclays cut its 12-month price target for Elon Musk’s electric car manufacturer Tesla to $150. The firm claimed that Tesla is “stalling as a niche automaker” and that the market is finally adjusting based on the realities of Tesla’s business model.

Barclays analyst Brian Johnson said on a recent investors call:

Model 3 demand is stagnating in the US, the company still doesn’t have a path to significant auto profitability and solar storage installations have declined sequentially over the past two quarters

While Mr. [Elon] Musk is pivoting to the remaining ‘hyberbull’ full robotaxi scenario, his efforts to spring excitement around Tesla’s full self-driving capabilities was broadly met with the appropriate skepticism. We expect more investors to gravitate back to Tesla’s near-term fundamentals of demand, profitability, and cash generation, areas that are now more exposed as the blue pill thesis washes away.

Tesla shares are down 40 percent this year and 20 percent this month alone as investors begin to question the company’s long term business strategy and concerns over lack of demand continue to grow. The company is also struggling to deal with rising costs despite a capital raise and have implemented extreme cost-cutting measures.

As part of cost-cutting measures, Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn will be reviewing and signing every page of outgoing payments while CEO Elon Musk will be reviewing and signing every tenth page. Musk warned that company cost-cutting measures will be “hardcore,” now sources say that Tesla facilities are going to extreme measures to reduce costs, including cutting down the ordering of office supplies and even refusing to order toilet paper.

One source stated that employees have begun bringing their own toilet paper from home in order to reduce overheads. Tesla is also cutting down on other employee benefits such as stipends given to employees for cellphone plans. Expenses that are not considered to be “essential” for the production, sales, and delivery of Tesla vehicles are reportedly being reviewed.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com