By Sam Boughedda
GLJ Research's CEO and co-founder Gordon Johnson outlined his bear thesis for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in a note to investors Thursday.
The long-time Tesla bear pointed to five points as to why they think Tesla has "major problems" this year. These include problems in China, its "FSD lie problem," autonomous vehicle competition, an image problem, and Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) problems.
Johnson firstly pointed to the company's "China/profit problem," stating that Tesla sales are "slipping in the only market where it turns a profit."
"The Chinese EV market has completely blindsided TSLA bulls (and TSLA) who for years have been laughing at 'The Next Tesla Killer' headlines/claims, thinking competition would be years away; TSLA bulls are running out of excuses (e.g., Tesla's China business)," wrote Gordon, who pointed to BYD (OTC:BYDDY) as outselling them.
Regarding full self-driving, the analyst argued that "it's obvious 'FSD', or more importantly the BIG THING E. Musk has promised – regarding the fleet of millions of TSLA cars being able to just 'wake up' with a software update that now makes everyone's TSLA’s a robotaxi – is not happening."
Meanwhile, Johnson said autonomous vehicle competition has also arrived, with "half a dozen companies, mostly in China but Cruise in SF, that can charge for driverless rides."
Concerning Tesla's supposed image problem, the analyst said it is "crumbling," while regarding Twitter, he said every M&A/other lawyer he has spoken to believes, Musk will not be able to back out of the acquisition, meaning he will likely "have to sell $15B-$20BN more of TSLA stock to fund the acquisition."