Tweet sparks interest in Tesla's 'D' launch

Tesla Motors Inc. Chief executive Elon Musk Thursday will unveil new technology that helps keep drivers from drifting off the road and what analysts predict will be an all-wheel-drive variant of its Model S.

Musk last week tweeted a photo of a Tesla car behind a partially open garage door with a stylized D on it. The post has been retweeted more than 14,000 times and favorited more than 10,000 times. Analysts including Brian Johnson at Barclays Plc have predicted that Tesla will unveil an all-wheel-drive version of its luxury sedan. The company will also add technologies such cruise control that matches the speed of other vehicles, said a person familiar with the plan.

While Tesla’s stock price has risen almost ninefold during the past two years, skepticism lingers about the company’s ability to consistently earn profits and to meet its own production goals. Musk, however, is “somebody you don’t want to bet against,” said Andrea James, a senior research analyst at Dougherty & Co.

“In only 2011, he was an unknown quantity among most of Wall Street,” James said. “The loss of Steve Jobs left a void for heroic business leadership, and Elon was ripe to step into that role. In some ways he has.”

Musk, 43, has played a large part in bolstering the mystique that surrounds Tesla. His presence on Twitter has amassed an audience of over a million, while his teasing tweets about potential new Tesla products send the Internet whirling. With his flair for stoking speculation about what’s to come — and by
developing products that capture consumers’ imaginations by using technology in innovative ways — he has in part filled the shoes left empty by the passing of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, James said.