Gary Zhou 
Very few Tesla bulls could hold a candle to ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood when it comes to optimistic forecasts about the electric vehicle maker. And in recent comments, Wood noted that her conviction in Tesla remains as strong as ever.
As noted in a CNBC report, Wood estimated that Tesla shares could increase fivefold during the next five years — and that’s only from the company’s electric vehicle business. With Tesla’s autonomous driving efforts in the picture, the ARK Invest founder and CEO noted that the growth of TSLA shares could be closer to 13 times in the next five years.
“It could come from EVs alone… it’s almost a fivefold increase of this stock over the next five years. And if you believe in autonomy at all, it’s more like 13 times over the next five years. So we’re more optimistic about Tesla than we’ve ever been,” Wood said.
Wood has long been a believer in disruptive technology. She also previously predicted that the shift to electric vehicles would be dramatic, with a projected 60 million EVs being sold within the next five years. The ARK CEO is one of Tesla’s biggest supporters, predicting that the EV maker’s shares could reach over $1,500, adjusted for stock splits, by 2026.
For context, TSLA shares ended Thursday’s trading at $127.17 per share.
Tesla has had a difficult 2022, with the EV maker’s stock seeing a steep 65% decline amidst challenges in China and noise from CEO Elon Musk’s turbulent takeover of Twitter. A miss in vehicle delivery estimates in the fourth quarter was also not received well by investors. Since the year began, however, Tesla has adopted an aggressive sales strategy, cutting prices across its offerings to make its vehicles more competitive.
For Wood, such a strategy could pay off. “Tesla will be very aggressive on pricing. Tesla can afford it. It has the lowest cost structure and, in our opinion, is the most aggressively innovative. The other automakers will compete. They have to follow those price drops, but it will hurt them from a margin quite significant from a profitability standpoint,” Wood said.
