Phil LeBeau Says Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) Roadster Upgrade Won’t Move Needle

Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s upgrade to its Roadster will not matter much to the company, Phil LeBeau told Sara Eisen in a discussion on CNBC.

The comment was prompted by a tweet sent out by Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) founder Elon Musk about his company’s plan for its roadster.

According to Musk, the upgrade to the Roadster will enable the car to travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco without stopping. That’s almost 400 miles of range, he noted.

However good that may sound, when looking at the company’s numbers, the Roadster doesn’t matter much, LeBeau asserted.

“Overall this is not going to move the needle very much. Remember, the Roadster is out of production [and] has been out of production for a couple of years. There are a few thousand of them out there,” he said.

According to LeBeau, what Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is expected to announce is an extended range for its electric sports car.

He also said that it must have been a slow news day for Musk and understanding that Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) very quickly becomes the topic of headlines when it has some updates, Musk sent out the tweets. In other words, it’s just the billionaire making noise for his company, LeBeau implied.

Nonetheless, LeBeau said that the car manufacturer delivered what was expected for the year. He noted that nobody, except maybe the die-hard Tesla fans, really expected the company to launch its Model X electric sports utility vehicle.

He said it is now uncommon in the automotive industry to have some forms of delays when a company is launching an all new vehicle and not just a redesign of an old model. The real test is whether the new vehicle will deliver and will attract new customers for the company when it is launched which is expected to be mid-2015.

Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management owned 1.25 million Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stocks by the end of the July to September quarter.