Charged: Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchases 2.57M shares

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From the hotly-debated high-flier Tesla (TSLA), Wall Street’s newest darling Rivian (RIVN), traditional-stalwarts turned EV-upstarts GM (GM) and Ford (F) to the numerous SPAC-deal makers that have come public in this red-hot space, The Fly has you covered with “Charged,” a weekly recap of the top stories and expert calls in the sector.

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STOCK BUY: In a regulatory filing, Tesla CEO Elon Musk disclosed his purchase on Friday, September 12, of 2,568,732 shares of Tesla stock in a series of purchases with prices ranging from $371.90 to $396.36.

William Blair keeps a Market Perform rating on Tesla after Elon Musk disclosed a purchase of nearly $1B for 2.56M shares on Friday, September 12. The purchase is a “clear signal of confidence from Musk,” the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says the market is looking through its margin concerns from the elimination of environmental tax credit revenue in the second half of this year. With Musk’s stock purchase and the “upward momentum” for delivery expectations and Tesla’s robotaxi rollout, William Blair is “becoming more bullish” on the stock.

DELIVERIES: Barclays expects Tesla Q3 deliveries of 465,000 units, flat year-over-year and above the consensus estimate of 430,000. Tesla is experiencing a flow of positive data points which will likely support the stock’s recent strength, the firm tells investors in a research note. Barclays sees potential for the share strength to continue with a Q3 deliveries beat. However, the firm believes investors may also look to Tesla’s weaker expected volume outlook for Q4 and beyond, especially in the U.S. where the firm says electric vehicle demand will see a significant decline after the expiration of the EV tax credit. It keeps an Equal Weight rating Tesla with a $275 price target.

Wells Fargo says that available Tesla August sales data remains weak despite the end of IRA on Sept 30. Of the 3 major markets it tracks, Wells says August Tesla deliveries are trending down 9% year-over-year, though 37% higher month-over-month. Despite the month-over-month pop, Q3 deliveries are still at risk vs consensus, the firm adds. Wells has an Underweight rating on the shares with a price target of $120.

EV DELIVERY VANS: Amazon.com (AMZN) has been quietly evaluating General Motors’ BrightDrop electric van, evidence that the e-commerce company continues to explore options to reduce the carbon emissions of its sprawling delivery operation, Bloomberg’s Matt Day and David Welch report. Amazon confirmed in a statement to Bloomberg that it was testing the vehicles. “We’re committed to having 100,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road by 2030, and we regularly test various vehicle options – including a small number of Chevrolet BrightDrops in our fleet,” Steve Kelly, a company spokesperson, said in an emailed statement.

RECALLS: Rivian is recalling 24,214 R1S and R1T electric vehicles due to a software defect that may cause its hands-free Highway Assist system to misidentify lead vehicles, the NHTSA says. The issue affects certain 2025 Rivian vehicles running an older software version in the U.S.

XPeng (XPEV) plans to recall 47,490 P7+ electric sedans from September 15 due to a potential steering assist failure, Reuters reports, citing a statement from the Chinese market regulator. Loose wire connections in the power steering assist sensors of the affected cars produced between August 2024 and April may cause the steering sensor signal to fluctuate, the State Administration for Market Regulation statement said.

MERGER AGREEMENT: Zeekr (ZK) announced that at an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, the company’s shareholders voted in favor of, among other things, the proposal to authorize and approve the previously announced agreement and plan of merger, dated as of July 15, among the company, Geely Automobile, and Keystone Mergersub, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely, pursuant to which the merger sub will merge with and into the company, with the company being the surviving company of the merger and becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely, the plan of merger required to be filed with the Registrar of Companies of the Cayman Islands and the consummation of the transactions contemplated thereby, including the merger.