'Hard To Argue Against' Tesla's Cybertruck But Rivian Has An 'Incredibly Compelling' Product In RIT: Analyst

Tesla, Inc. TSLA shares fell in the two straight sessions that followed the release of its much-awaited to Cybertruck, with the disgruntled lot pointing to the higher-than-expected pricing. An analyst at sell-side firm Canaccord Genuity said that the newest vehicle from the electric vehicle maker’s stable is as polarizing as company CEO Elon Musk.

Mixed Views: “It’s hard to argue against its genius and its performance,” said Canaccord’s George Gianarikas in a CNBC interview. The latest pickup truck’s performance metrics are “incredible,” he added. He noted that the Cybertruck beat a Porsche 911 “off the line” while towing another Porsche 911, and cited reviews that said that the former vehicle’s turning radius is “incredible.”

“It’s just a car that will probably change the landscape of our roads,” the analyst said of the Cybertruck. That said, he noted that some people liked it, while others didn’t.

Rivian Beneficiary? Gianarikas said that the electric vehicle industry will likely experience what the mobile phone industry did 10 to 15 years ago, when smartphones were introduced. “The companies that won those wars weren’t the Nokias or Motorolas of the world, but those were the companies that were able to build new products from the ground up,” the analyst said.

“That’s Tesla and that’s Rivian,” he added.

Rivian, in particular, has an “incredibly compelling” product that the company designed from scratch, Gianarikas said. The company has taken advantage of the software it built “at the vehicle control system level all the way up to your UI [user interface],” he added.

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Economics Of Cybertruck: The analyst said the economics of the Cybertruck aren’t clear yet, but he did not rule out its potential to be gross-margin positive. Like any other new vehicle, it probably could lose money at the very beginning, he said. Since the Cybertruck is built in the same facility as the Model Y, the building and a lot of infrastructure is already in place, he noted.

“Over time, we’re guessing it will reach profitability similar to the other Tesla vehicles,” the analyst said.

One of the pushbacks most analysts have expressed about the Cybertruck is its higher-than-expected pricing, with Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster suggesting that, at the current production rate, it will probably lose $10,000 per vehicle.

Tesla ended Friday’s session at $238.83, down 0.52%, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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