Fewer hybrids and higher gas prices
Is the Japanese situation quietly getting worse?
Tesla Motors could one day be worth $70 a share? At least that’s the long term view of Morgan Stanley, as long as gas prices remain high and continue to rise, and battery costs decline significantly and regularly over the next 15 years.
When it comes to Toyota in the near term; however, the Japanese crisis is turning some Toyota bulls into bears.
The key metric ultimately boils down to whether the crisis in Japan is getting better or getting worse, and there is growing sentiment that the problems in Japan are much bigger than initially believed. Consequently, Japanese auto production problems could eventually be greater than anticipated.
For instance, it’s not just that a car like the Toyota Prius is produced in Japan, but that many critical supplies for the Prius are also only manufactured in Japan. Thus, even though Toyota has restarted Prius production in Japan, supply issues could still hamper production for months, in addition to power outages and/or rolling blackouts.
Will Honda and Nissan face similar problems? Will key hybrid supplies slow even North American built hybrid cars and electric vehicles?
It’s all still a bit of conjecture at this point, but with gas prices rising, the potential for declining hybrid supplies is a legitimate threat for hybrid buyers now in the market or close to entering the market.