The new partnerships between Tesla and Detroit’s established automakers should give a broad boost to shift toward electric vehicles, Ark Invest chief investment officer Cathie Wood said Friday. On Thursday, General Motors announced that it was partnering with Tesla to let its customers access Tesla’s charging stations. Ford announced a similar deal last month. The deal will significantly expand the number of public charges available to the customers of the old guard Detroit automakers. “I think it’s great for America and our transition to the electric future. … I do think it increases the probability of our forecast of 60 million electric vehicle sales by ’27,” Wood said on CNBC’s ” Squawk Box .” “I think having both General Motors and Ford on this charging network — which is the big gating factor, ‘range anxiety’ — gets us there that much faster,” she added. Wood is a long-time Tesla bull, and the electric vehicle stock accounts for more than 12% of Ark’s flagship Innovation ETF (ARKK) . The fund has rebounded more than 30% this year after struggling in 2022. Tesla’s stock is already up more than 90% year to date, and shares were rising again in premarket trading Friday to about $250 per share. Ark projects that Tesla’s stock can hit $2,000 per share by 2027. TSLA YTD mountain Tesla’s stock has jumped sharply in 2023. However, Wood said that any boost Tesla would get from this partnership with Ford and GM is not baked into that projection. The long-term bull case for Tesla still rests on the potential for a breakthrough in autonomous driving technology that enables a fleet of Tesla taxis. “We think another revenue source is going to be much bigger, and of course that is the autonomous taxi platform. … Instead of electric vehicle gross margins in the 25%-30% range, we expect autonomous — the platform strategy — to deliver 80%, 90% margin. So, the combined will be north of 50%,” Wood said.
