Exclusive: Kelley Blue Book Analyst On Tesla's Range Anxiety

Shares of Tesla Motors Inc TSLA were up on Monday after CEO Elon Musk (@elonmusk) tweeted on Sunday about a press conference that will take place on Thursday morning. With this event, the company intends to "end range anxiety...via OTA software update."

Benzinga contacted Kelley Blue Book analyst Jack Nerad for comments on the issue.

How could software help reduce range anxiety?

“It is hard to conceive of a software update that could so substantially improve range and/or reduce charging time that it would eliminate range anxiety. Getting more range from current battery packs would certainly help limit range anxiety, but key difficulties for Tesla Model S owners center around the relative rarity of charging stations and especially the length of time it takes to reach a full charge,” Nerad said.

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How would that increase interest in Tesla vehicles?

“The elimination of range anxiety would certainly boost consumer interest in Tesla vehicles. Currently many who might otherwise consider the Model S decline to buy because they don’t want to be confronted with range and charging issues.”

Does this seem like a buy the rumor, sell the news event?

“Tesla Motors seems very skilled at using social media to create speculation around its vehicles and build buzz in that manner.”

Shares of Tesla traded recently at $195.26, up 3.5 percent.

Javier Hasse and Brianna Valleskey contributed to this report.