By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares were down 2.6% in Wednesday’s premarket trading as worries grow about rising competition, higher interest rates and its valuation.
Volkswagen (OTC:VWAPY), which owns the Porsche, Audi and Bentley brands, said on Tuesday it expects to make 1 million electric vehicles this year, which would put it comfortably ahead of Tesla in volume sales.
In a further sign of more competition for Elon Musk's company, Japan's Honda (NYSE:HMC) this month launched a limited edition level-3 autonomous sedan in its home market. Tesla is so far behind its projections of launching a fully autonomous vehicle and Musk recently admitted that the company's latest software iteration will not reach level-3.
Lansdowne Partners fund manager Per Lekander told CNBC that Tesla's stock has been in a bubble that is now deflating
“My take is that this year is going to be the comeback for the incumbents,” Lekander said.
Tesla stock lost over one-third of its value from its January peak in the first two months of the year but has since recovered about a quarter of those losses.