“A Setback”: Tesla Stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) Notches Up as New Jersey Supercharger Stations Close

One of the biggest issues about owning an electric car—whether it be from electric vehicle giant Tesla (TSLA) or from literally any other maker—is finding a place to recharge it. And that proposition is about to get a lot more difficult in New Jersey, as 64 Supercharger stalls are poised to be “decommissioned” soon. Yet Tesla shareholders were oddly forgiving, and sent Tesla shares up fractionally in Monday afternoon’s trading despite this less than shocking new development.

Tesla looked to “decommission” 64 of the stalls located on the New Jersey Turnpike, reports noted, as New Jersey itself awarded a new contract to a different provider: Applegreen. As it turns out, Applegreen already had an agreement with the Turnpike Authority to provide both “restaurants and travel marts,” so apparently, some consolidation made sense.

But without the Tesla Supercharger presence, reports note, the end result is more likely to prove a “setback” to New Jersey’s goals of a greener state. In fact, Tesla itself noted, “NJTA’s decision to remove, rather than add, critical charging infrastructure is a setback for New Jersey’s EV adoption goals of 100% Zero-Emission New Car Sales by 2035.” Which, also, makes sense; why remove charging options of any sort? But the Turnpike Authority noted that Applegreen will be bringing in 240 chargers, which will outpace Tesla’s total of 76 by a wide margin.

Then Congress Got Involved

But another matter may be poised to hit Tesla in a major portion of its revenue stream, as Tesla’s ability to sell “regulatory credits” is in jeopardy along with regulations on fuel economy. Car companies are working to reach zero-emission status, mostly at government insistence, and in a way to bypass these regulations, instead buy the aforementioned credits from companies who produce a lot more electric vehicles, like Tesla does.

With electric vehicles never really in favor with customers to begin with, and penalties for violating the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards potentially set to drop to $0, Tesla’s ability to sell those credits may be about to fall off a cliff. Because with no consequences for violation, car companies suddenly no longer need the regulatory credits, and Tesla’s ability to sell them—unless some company wants to stock up ahead of a potential regulatory return later—plummets.

Is Tesla a Buy, Hold or Sell?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 14 Buys, 12 Holds, and 10 Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 69.83% rally in its share price over the past year, the average TSLA price target of $281.77 per share implies 5.12% downside risk.

See more TSLA analyst ratings

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