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Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas believes Tesla's next business venture will likely be flying cars, according to a Thursday note.
While admitting that Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have never mentioned their intent of building a flying car, Jonas believes the synergies between flying cars and autonomous driving, electric vehicles, and battery technology are too great to ignore.
"The chance that Tesla does not ultimately offer products and services to the [flying car] market is remote. The potential skills transferability and network adjacencies are too strong to ignore," Jonas explained.
While Musk has favored autnomous vehicles, tunnels, and space travel, he has been dismissive of flying cars in the past, according to Jonas.
"So we must acknowledge that Tesla management has, to date, openly discouraged speculation around their involvement in [flying cars]. So, that's it then...We'll have Teslas on our roads, underground in tunnels... on Mars. But not in Earth's skies? Well... we're not convinced," Jonas said.
The analyst, who has a knack for long-term speculation on the trajectory of Tesla's business, thinks a slice of the flying car market could be worth as much as $1,000 per share for Tesla and have a total addressable market of $9 trillion by 2050. "Yes... 2050," Jonas commented.
Alternatively, a flying car business could be worth as little as $100 per share for Tesla. But for now, given the level of speculation, Jonas is excluding the potential for Tesla flying cars from his Tesla price target of $900.
"We note that our current $900 price target does not include any valuation for Tesla's participation in the aviation market," Jonas concluded.
Morgan Stanley
