Tesla shares surged more than 18% in August, outperforming major U.S. and Chinese electric vehicle stocks as Cybercabs appeared across Austin ahead of the company’s highly anticipated launch event on Thursday.
Tesla Leads August EV Stock Rally
Tesla was the clear August winner among major U.S. and Chinese EV stocks. Rivian gained 5.5% during the month, while General Motors, Ford and Stellantis fell 2.9%, 4% and 4.7%, respectively.
Chinese EV makers performed even worse. BYD’s U.S.-listed shares declined 7.5%, Li Auto dropped 11.2%, XPeng fell 12.6% and Nio slid 13.3%.
Wall Street’s average 12-month Tesla price target is $390.09, according to Koyfin, implying 6% upside from current levels. Among the 46 analysts covering Tesla, six rate the stock a ‘Strong Buy,’ 16 assign a ‘Buy,’ 19 recommend a ‘Hold,’ three rate it a ‘Sell’ and two carry a ‘Strong Sell.’ The overall analyst consensus is ‘Buy.’
Tesla Cybercabs Appear Across Austin Ahead of Event
The rally comes ahead of Tesla’s Sept. 3 Cybercab event, with sightings of the company’s gold-colored autonomous vehicles increasing across Austin.
Tesla investor and influencer Sawyer Merritt noted on X that the company added another 38 Cybercabs to its Robotaxi fleet, bringing the total registered with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles to 45. Videos shared online showed multiple Cybercabs driving and parked around the city.
Merritt also reported that Tesla expanded its Austin Robotaxi service area for the first time in 10 months. The geofence grew about 9% to 264 square miles, compared with 81 square miles in Dallas, 31 in Miami, 26 in Orlando, 25 in Houston and 24 in Tampa.
Patrick Moorhead, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said he saw Tesla Cybercabs throughout downtown Austin and, for the first time, observed as many as Waymo vehicles.
Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy also shared footage of the vehicles, declaring, “The streets won’t be the same anymore.” When an X user asked whether Tesla was preparing to flood Austin with Cybercabs, CEO Elon Musk replied, “Yes.”
Tesla Analyst Challenges Robotaxi Optimism
Tesla’s EV business is also showing signs of strong demand ahead of the event. The Model Y L Launch Series is nearly sold out for 2026, with estimated deliveries for all configurations now extending into early 2027.
Strong early demand for the longer Model Y variant could help Tesla balance its core vehicle operations with its increasingly focused autonomy and artificial intelligence businesses.
However, Future Fund Managing Partner Gary Black argued that Wall Street expects several autonomous-driving companies to achieve unsupervised operations around a similar time. That could turn autonomous ride-hailing into a commodity rather than a winner-takes-all market.
“WS analysts forecast valuations based on their projections of forward earnings and cash flows, not based on where the first real number prints,” Black said.
Black compared today’s bullish Robotaxi forecasts with claims from five years ago that Tesla would sell 20 million EVs annually by 2030. He called that assumption “absurd,” saying it would have required Tesla to capture about 20% of the global EV market.
Retail Traders Turn Bullish on TSLA
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for TSLA jumped to ‘bullish’ from ‘neutral’ levels a day earlier, amid a 1,444% surge in 24-hour message volumes.
One user weighed in on the Cybercab event and said, “Fleet size and paid miles per car would tell us far more about the business than the presentation itself.”
Despite Tesla’s August rally, its stock has lagged its “Magnificent Seven” peers so far this year. Tesla remains the group’s worst performer, down about 18%.
Another user said, “$TSLA traders now expecting a quick move back to reclaim $400 after bullish updates on cybercab, semi and optimus from the company”
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Deepti Sri has no position in any of the stocks mentioned in this article. StockTwits’ news team content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. For more, see our editorial policy. This article was originally published on StockTwits.
