Tesla 's lead in the electric vehicle race is shrinking, according to Jefferies. "In the last few months, tracking Tesla fundamentals has felt a bit like watching paint dry," wrote analyst Philippe Houchois in a Monday note to clients. "More margin erosion in Q3 and uncertain growth in 2024 still raise questions whether Tesla's earlier profit edge was structural or a timing difference." TSLA YTD mountain Tesla shares year to date. Given these dwindling leadership fears and concerns of waning elasticity and inventory, the firm trimmed its price target on the automaker to $250 from $265 a share, representing 4% downside from Monday's close. Tesla shares have outperformed this year, jumping more than 116% after a rough 2022. "We continue to think that everything Tesla does differently from the rest of the industry can also be done by others if given time, making speed essential to maintain an edge," he said, adding that this advantage has started to crumble amid some feature and battery delays. "Hyperscaling through model concentration remains a unique feature of Tesla's auto business model but reaches its limits without the launch of more volume models," Houchois wrote. "Cybertruck may fit the profile but production challenges and lack of specs keep us in the dark." Price declines and a dwindling management team also linger as potential threats for the company. Tesla's machine learning approach does appear to be the industry's "most scalable solution," but lacks a business model, he added. — CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
