Investing.com — Tesla’s (NASDAQ:) stock continues to see a Trump 2.0 tailwind as CEO Elon Musk played a crucial role in the president-elect’s victory. Since Trump was declared the winner on Tuesday night, Tesla shares have been up nearly 26%, including Friday’s 6% jump. The market cap of the EV maker is up over $200 billion since the election.
On Thursday, analysts at BofA Securities raised their price target on Tesla to $350 from $265, saying the U.S. election supports the company’s growth trajectory.
“In our view, a Trump administration could ease regulations, supporting TSLA’s growth trajectory,” analyst John Murphy stated.
For one, while the Biden administration has launched several probes into Tesla’s FSD system, they see the potential for less aggressive scrutiny under Trump.
In addition, the analyst highlights that Musk has proposed a national standard for regulating self-driving vehicles, which the Trump administration has expressed an openness to. “This could ease the roll-out of the Robotaxi business that TSLA plans to start offering in 2025, and currently requires state-by-state approvals,” the analyst commented.
Further, relaxed EPS rules and curbs on China may lessen EV competition, a plus for Tesla. “President-elect Trump has indicated plans to relax environmental rules,” the analyst wrote. “This could induce incumbent OEMs to slow their EV ramps amidst lessened regulatory pressure that is driving the shift from ICE vehicles to EVs. This could help TSLA maintain its hold on the domestic EV market, especially as it is planning to release new models with more affordable entry prices. Further, the Trump administration is likely to take a tougher stance on China. This could prevent some potential competitors to TSLA from participating in the US EV market.”
