Purontier is showing strength. It appears that the news of the U.S. electric vehicle company Tesla conducting initial consultations with city authorities in Austin, Texas, to launch fully autonomous robo (driverless) taxis is influencing the stock price.
As of 9:31 a.m. on the 20th, Purontier is trading at 28,950 KRW, up 3.02% from the previous day.
Bloomberg News reported that through a public records request, it confirmed that Tesla employees have been communicating with Austin city's autonomous vehicle task force (TF) since May.
Bloomberg highlighted that Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, is expected to be appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the next administration starting January next year, which is anticipated to bring significant deregulation. This movement is being observed in Austin, where Tesla's headquarters are located. Texas, including Austin, is politically classified as a "Republican stronghold."
Lee Won-jae, a researcher at the Korea IR Association, explained, "The major customers are domestic and overseas camera module manufacturers such as LG Innotek, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, MCNEX, and Sekonix," and "The final demand is estimated to be from the global autonomous driving leader, Tesla in the U.S." He added, "It is estimated that more than 80% of sales of automotive equipment are supplied to Tesla," and "The indicator most closely correlated with Purontier's sales is Tesla's resumption of new investments and expansion of autonomous vehicle production."
He said, "Tesla unveiled the driverless robo taxi ‘Cybercab’ without a steering wheel and pedals at the ‘We, Robot’ event on October 10," and "announced that mass production will begin in 2026." He expressed expectations that "Purontier's performance will rebound as new equipment order demand increases due to Tesla's launch of a new low-cost model (Model 2) in the first half of next year and the full-scale mass production of robo taxis (Cybercab) in 2026."
The researcher explained, "Tesla can increase production by 50% by maximizing the use of existing production lines," and "Tesla's annual production capacity is 2.35 million units, and with the addition of new models, it is expected to approach 3 million units."
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