Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has withdrawn its trademark filing for the Model E, which was expected to be the name for its third ground up vehicle after the Model S and Model X. It’s expected to be launched in 2016 / 2017 and have a 200-mile range and a $35,000 price tag. Apart from calling it Model E, the company has also been referring the vehicle as “Gen 3” car with 3 Series / A4 / C-Class set and saying that it’s 25% smaller than the Model S.
Tesla has also confirmed to Auto Blog Green that it is “no longer pursuing the Model E trademark.”
Suspicion over name
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has also said the Gen 3 model will not be launched anytime soon, even though there has been a good number of rumors doing the rounds. It is possible that Tesla might continue with its single alphabet titles for the cars or give it a new name, just like it gave to Roadster. The car in the making is expected to be slightly smaller than the Model S, in which the letter s denotes “sedan.” Similarly, the Model X is the name given to the company’s all-wheel-drive crossover.
CEO Elon Musk has sometimes used the letter e in public and other times the term “Gen 3” while referring to the project. There is no official word on the launch date, with some reports suggesting early 2015 but most expecting it by 2017.
Analysts assign Hold to Tesla
Research analysts at Morgan Stanley assigned an Overweight rating to Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock with a price target of $320 in a research note to investors on Thursday. In the report, the analysts mentioned that investors are concerned about how the market will react to a possible year over year decline in North American deliveries of the Model S in 2014.
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) was recently subjected to analyst ratings from a number of other firms as well. Zacks analysts maintained an Outperform rating on the stock in a research note dated April 21, 2014. Robert W. Baird maintained a Buy rating on the stock in a research note on April 7, 2014. Tesla Motors currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $210.79.
