Shares of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) surged above the $227 level on Tuesday morning after CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the electric-car maker will have a product announcement at noon California time.
Musk, known for his ability to move Tesla shares with his tweets, declined to offer details before the announcement, but his comments prompted Tesla’s stock to print its biggest intraday gain in two weeks.
Musk has previously tweeted planned product or company announcements that sent shares higher. In March 2015, he tweeted that an unveiling at the end of April at the automaker’s Hawthorne, Calif., design studio will bring the company’s first foray beyond automobiles. Tesla shares spiked nearly 20 percent over the month before the announcement that the Palo Alto, California-based company was unveiling storage systems or batteries for homes and companies.
On July 10, Musk announced on Twitter (NASDAQ:TWTR) that he was working on a “secret master plan, part 2,” with details to come later. That led again to another jump in the stock’s price-per-share. Musk’s latest tweet however, comes as Tesla battles against increasing investor skepticism over its current business plan. Furthermore, the company remains under pressure since the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed in late June that it opened an investigation into a May 7 fatal Florida crash, the first death involving Tesla’s self-driving feature known as Autopilot.
The agency has asked the electric car maker to hand over detailed information about its self-driving technology following the crash in which the system was in use. The company’s sale of stock after that accident is also being probed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to a July 12 Fortune report, the electric car maker was accused of misleading investors. Fortune claimed that eleven days after the Florida crash, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk, in combination made $2 billion by selling stock on May 18 in a public offering at $215 per share without disclosing the May 7 crash, which the company and founder-CEO knew about at the time.
Update: Elon Musk confirms that Tesla’s Model S and Model X will both get extended battery ranges thanks to new 100kWh battery packs.
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