Charged: Tesla reports, Uber discloses stake in Lucid

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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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RESULTS: Tesla reported Q1 adjusted EPS of 41c and revenue of $22.39B, both better than the expected 36c and $22.35B. “We are excited about Tesla’s positioning in 2026 with tailwinds persisting for the autos business, our continued progress on FSD (Supervised), the ramp of Robotaxi, progress on Optimus ahead of mass production and the growth of our energy production capacity. There remains significant effort and hard work to realize our mission of Amazing Abundance. As always, we are focused on maintaining a rapid pace of innovation in new and exciting technologies – such as electrification, cutting-edge software and artificial intelligence – expanding our lead in advanced manufacturing and increasing supply chain resilience to ensure we manage future risk to our scale. The future is incredibly bright,” the company said.

On its outlook, Tesla stated, “We are focused on maximum capacity utilization at our factories. Deliveries and deployments will be impacted by aggregate demand for our products, supply chain readiness and allocation decisions between sale to customers or use for our owned and operated fleet. We will manage the businesses such that we ensure a strong balance sheet, maintaining sufficient liquidity to fund our product roadmap, long-term capacity expansion plans – including further vertical integration – and other expenses. While we continue to execute on innovations to reduce the cost of manufacturing and operations, over time, we expect our hardware-related profits to be accompanied by an acceleration of AI, software and fleet-based profits. We continue to evolve and augment our product lineup with a focus on cost, scale and future monetization opportunities via services powered by our AI software. We remain focused on growing our sales volumes through a differentiated and efficiently managed product portfolio, which includes leveraging and optimizing our existing production capacity before building new factories and production lines. Cybercab, Tesla Semi and Megapack 3 are on schedule for volume production starting in 2026. First-generation production lines for Optimus are being installed in anticipation of volume production. Capacity build out and ramp related to our multi-year infrastructure initiatives, including AI compute, solar, battery material and semiconductor manufacturing are underway.”

Wall Street analysts were somewhat divided on their reactions to the news, with some more bullish than others. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an Overweight rating and $510 price target on Tesla shares following the quarterly earnings report. The firm highlighted that Tesla delivered a Q1 beat on revenue, margins, and earnings, including strong free cash flow of $1.44B versus expectations for a significant outflow, though a higher FY26 capex outlook of over $25B implies negative free cash flow for the rest of the year, even as key products like Cybercab, Semi, and Megapack 3 remain on track and the company continues its transition toward autonomy, AI, and robotics amid a year-to-date stock decline.

On the flip side, Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan noted that despite the decent Q1, the firm sees a lot of bad news. Capex is now projected to rise to $25B, weighing on free cash flow, and operating expenses increased by $1B year-over-year. However, both are likely to yield limited near-term returns. Musk does not expect the AI5 chip to provide near-term monetization, Optimus and Semi ramps are expected to be slow, the Optimus 3 reveal is now expected closer to production in the second half of the year, and Musk noted Hardware 3 vehicles will need retrofits to achieve FSD capability, requiring “micro-factories.” The firm has an Underweight rating on the shares with a price target of $125.

PRODUCTION ON TRACK: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe noted that the company’s Illinois factory had its roof “ripped off” and suffered tornado damage last week, but stated in an interview on Bloomberg TV that R2 vehicle production is on track despite the plant damage. He further noted that Rivian still plans $45,000 variant for R2 line over next year.

STAKE IN LUCID: Uber (UBER) disclosed an 11.52% passive stake in Lucid (LCID), which represents over 37.75M shares. As part of Lucid’s $300M capital raise on April 14, Uber increased its purchase commitment to at least 35,000 Lucid vehicles designed exclusively for use as part of Uber’s future global robotaxi service. Uber has also committed to an additional $200M investment in Lucid, raising Uber’s total investments to $500M to date. 

BNP UPS LI: BNP Paribas upgraded Li Auto (LI) to Neutral from Underperform with a HK$70 price target. The company’s sales volume weakness of its previous model cycle is now reflected in the shares, the firm tells investors in a research note. BNP points out that Li is currently undergoing generation upgrades of its L-series.

BULLISH ON OKLO: Tigress Financial initiated coverage of Oklo (OKLO) with a Buy rating and $130 price target, which represents a potential return of 80%. Oklo is developing the sub-100 MWe Aurora Powerhouse, notes the firm, which calls the stock a “differentiated way to play the emerging U.S. advanced-nuclear and SMR build-out” via its Aurora sodium-cooled fast reactor, High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium-based fuel cycle, and growing ecosystem across data centers, AI, and isotopes.

HSBC also initiated coverage of Oklo with a Buy rating and $96 price target. Oklo is accelerating the integration of power, fuels and isotopes production, with the company pioneering an “owner-operator” model for its small modular reactors, the firm tells investors in a research note. HSBC believes the company is positioned to leverage the new Department of Energy-led licensing process for its 75 MW Aurora powerhouses and fuel foundry. The firm says Oklo has a clean balance sheet with “imminent first revenue,” creating a good risk/reward at current share levels.