Tesla Stock Slides as Deutsche Bank Downgrades on ‘Thesis-Changing’ Robotaxi Pivot [Video]

Tesla (TSLA) shares slid to their lowest level in more than a year Thursday after Deutsche Bank analysts downgraded the electric vehicle (EV) maker’s stock, citing uncertainty around its plans to refocus its growth efforts on autonomous vehicles.

Deutsche Bank analysts led by Emmanuel Rosner downgraded Tesla to “hold” from “buy” on Thursday and lowered their price target by 35%, to $123 from $189.

“Our longer-term Buy rating was predicated on the next-gen vehicle priced at $25k coming late next year, which would allow the company to reaccelerate volume, margins and [free cash flow], and potentially come to dominate the Western EV market,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote on Thursday.

Whether that low-cost Tesla model, sometimes called the Model 2, is being made at all was called into question earlier this month when Reutersreported the EV maker had canceled its plans to release a low-cost, mass-market model. Tesla will instead focus on …