If nothing else, Tesla Motors is an extremely ambitious car company. The brand’s upcoming Model 3 had one of the largest one-week product launches in history, its Gigafactory battery plant is set to be one of the largest buildings on the planet, and more recently, Tesla announced its plan to acquire SolarCity. But while some commend Elon Musk and Co. for their aggressive approach, others theorize that the automaker is perhaps biting off a bit more than it can chew.
One such critic is Goldman Sachs, which recently downgraded Tesla’s stock from “Buy” to “Neutral” and slashed its six-month price target from $240 to $185. Why? The firm cited potential Model 3 delays as a major threat to share prices, while also labeling the brand a “high cash burn business.”
Read more: Camper Mode will cozy up the interior of your Tesla Model 3
“We now see incremental risk to the business related to management’s deployment of capital for [mergers and acquisitions], and further believe that any delay in the company’s timeline to launch its new Model 3 will be detrimental to shares,” said Goldman Sachs analyst Patrick Archambault, courtesy of Electrek.
In many cases, this type of analysis would result in a worse rating from Goldman Sachs, but the firm admits that it’s not all bad news on the Tesla front. For one, the manufacturer’s car deliveries shot up 70 percent to 24,500 units in the third quarter of 2016, and Archambault predicts a positive earnings-per-share result for that time frame because of it.
“With solid 3Q16 deliveries and the potential downward catalyst of a missed Model 3 launch timeline out in 2H17, we prefer to be Neutral on shares,”Archambault summarized.
As a result of the news, Tesla’s share price dropped 3.4 percent to $201.28. For more on the controversial car brand and the upcoming Model 3, click through to our news and rumor roundup.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.