Ron Baron on Tesla $TSLA stock: ‘Now is the bottom’

Legendary investor and Tesla bull Ron Baron believes the electric automaker’s stock is set to see massive gains as the introduction of Robotaxi and a new vehicle lineup is imminent.

“Now is the bottom,” Baron said during an interview with Squawk Box on CNBC earlier today.

Baron has been one of the biggest winners in terms of Tesla stock ownership, seeing his portfolio increase by multitudes over the past several years and holding over $1.5 billion in shares at one point.

However, as the stock has felt some pressure over the past year and a half, being up only 1 percent compared to a year ago and down 32 percent since the beginning of 2024, Baron believes the only way to go now is up.

“It’s going to go up huge,” Baron said. When he was asked when this would happen, his answer was simple: “Now.”

As Tesla is trading at around $166 on Thursday morning during early trading hours, it has gone up the past two days, fending off bearish tones that mention slowing demand, increasing vehicle inventories, and a loss of market share in regions like China and Europe.

Tesla’s Q1 2024 Earnings Call seemed to put some rest to the questions that lie before it. When will a dedicated Robotaxi be released? How far is Tesla from solving Full Self-Driving? How will Tesla compete with automakers that have released affordable models that are comparable to their best-sellers that are not as competitively priced?

Robotaxi and Solving FSD

Tesla announced recently that it would unveil a dedicated Robotaxi vehicle on August 8. Based on an experience he recently had with the company in California, Baron believes the Robotaxi will be capable of driving people around without any human intervention.

He requested to see Steve Jobs’ house from Tesla’s Hawthorne Design Studio in Los Angeles. He claims that several others joined him in the car, and the vehicle drove him to Jobs’ former residence without any human intervention, handling things like a pedestrian waving the vehicle on and other challenging scenarios.

He believes Robotaxi will be coming soon.

Affordable Models

Tesla said in its Q1 2024 Shareholder Deck that it had ultimately decided to launch a new, updated vehicle lineup that will help accelerate the launch of new models ahead of previously planned timelines, which hinted toward a late 2025 production start.

Including a blend of both the existing and next-generation platforms, the new vehicle lineup will feature affordable models and will be able to be manufactured on existing production lines.

Tesla updates future vehicle lineup — and it will arrive sooner than expected

“This update may result in achieving less cost reduction than previously expected,” Tesla wrote, “but enables us to prudently grow our vehicle volumes in a more capex efficient manner during uncertain times.”

Baron’s Other Thoughts

Baron kept the same tone regarding selling Tesla shares as he has for years: none are going anywhere.

He believes the stock will increase substantially, and the catalysts of Robotaxi and Full Self-Driving will be the main drivers of an increase in valuation for Tesla, aligning with the idea that the company is not an automaker and should be looked at in terms of software.

Today’s full video of Ron Baron talking $TSLA

“It’s gonna go up huge. Now is the bottom.” pic.twitter.com/FshULylNy6

— Christopher Dungeon (@ChrisDungeon) April 25, 2024

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