Tesla Stock Drops 8% On News Of Robotaxi Delay

(RTTNews) - Tesla, Inc. shares were hit on Thursday's trading following a Bloomberg report that the luxury electric vehicle maker has delayed the unveiling of its robotaxi service to October. The company had previously planned its launch on August 8.

Tesla shares, which were gaining recently on the expected unveiling as well as a better-than-expected second-quarter deliveries, lost 8.4 percent on regular trading following the news, to close at $241.03. In the extended trading, the shares lost 1.8 percent further.

The report, citing people familiar with the decision, noted that the company is postponing its planned unveiling by two months so that teams working on the project will get more time to build additional prototypes. The design team reportedly was asked to rework certain elements of the car.

In 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had promised that Tesla would have one million robotaxi-ready vehicles on the road in 2020.

Last week, Tesla had reported its second-quarter vehicle deliveries, better than market estimates. The deliveries increased sequentially, but was lower than the prior year, despite efforts to boost demand. Meanwhile, quarterly production of vehicles was lower year-over-year as well as sequentially.

In the recent period, the car maker has been struggling with weak demand and tough competition in the U.S. and Europe, as well as in its major market of China.

Among Tesla's peers, auto giant General Motors Co., through its autonomous vehicle company Cruise LLC, and tech major Alphabet Inc., through its autonomous driving unit Waymo LLC, are already offering robotaxi services.