Why Tesla's Earnings Report Doesn't Matter

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) shareholders are on the edge of their seat this week as the company is set to report its December quarter earnings Wednesday.

Loup Ventures is bullish on Tesla, but believes whatever CEO Elon Musk says this week about Model 3 production will be irrelevant in the long term.

“As venture capitalists, we have the luxury of thinking about themes over a very long horizon,” Loup's Gene Munster wrote. “With that perspective, Wednesday’s Tesla earnings report is a non-event.”

Loup believes the only thing critical for Tesla in the near term is that its automobile technology remains the gold standard of the industry.

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While Tesla shareholders are fretting over how many Model 3s the company can deliver in the next two years, Loup believes Tesla’s true advantage will be its ability to beat competitors to the market with autonomous vehicles. In that sense, Loup doesn’t see General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) as Tesla’s long-term competition. Instead, the firm sees Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), BMW, Uber and Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ: BIDU) as the biggest competition for Tesla. Each of those companies is expected to have a driverless car on the road by 2021.

Loup projects that Tesla will sell between 1.5 and 2 million vehicles annually by 2025, well short of the 10 million vehicles GM sold in 2016. However, Tesla’s 16-22 percent CAGR should still appeal to growth investors and potentially continue Tesla’s momentum in the market in coming years.