Tesla Fanatics Call Citron a Lemon (TSLA)

Editor's note: This story was updated at 9:54am EST at the bottom with comments from Citron Research's Andrew Left.

Tuesday, Citron Research issued a negative tweet that sent Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares lower.

Related: Tesla shares dropped as much as $5 on the bearish comments

Car of the Future Is Today

Citron is bearish on the stock here as they believe that Tesla's new competition in the BMW i3 electric vehicle could already dent sales expectations for Tesla's cars. They said that the i3 is already the car of the future and see expectations for Tesla's future releases as too bullish.

Citron has stayed away til now short $tsla Car of the future is today. Valuation has no respect for real competition http://t.co/5aH4np4kOV

— Citron Research (@CitronResearch) July 30, 2013

Fanatics Defend Tesla

The Citron tweet was so shocking to the Tesla faithful that it even made it onto the Tesla message boards. Tesla supporters went so far as to call Citron a "lemon," a term known in the used-car industry to describe bad used cars.

Tesla supporters defended the company, noting that it is the only true electric car company in the world with any scale. User toby_wan_kenoby wrote, "In my eyes, [the tweet is] a total disrespect to the phenomenal upside potential that electric car companies (and there is currently only one) have."

"The more shorts there are in the market the higher the subsequent squeeze. It is healthy to have these negative comments, if the whole world would already buy into this success story it would most likely be all over for the stock price." He also noted that most of the reviews of the Tesla Model S have been positive with few negative comments.

i3 Not Serious Competition

User Curt Renz wrote that the tweet links to an article highlighting the launch of the BMW i3 and looks more like the company's press release about the car, pumping it as the next great thing. "I don't see the ugly short ranged BMW i3 as serious competition to the Tesla Model S or later models. If anything, it demonstrates that another established automaker fears that Tesla Motors will be genuinely disruptive to their industry."

User jbunn(at)hotmail.com agreed with this sentiment, noting that the i3 is not a direct competitor to Tesla's Model S. "The BMW I3 is in no way a competitor to the Tesla S. I assume today's dip will recover after cooler heads prevail."

Citron Responds

Citron's Andrew Left commented on the posts to Benzinga. He said, "I think for anyone who is naive enough to believe that their stock only has the right to go up should not be in the stock market and is a hazard to themselves. Apple makes great products and is the most respected company in the world. As soon as the stock hit $700 investor euphoria was irrational discounting all competition...the rest of the story we all know."

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