Tesla Unveils Model X, GM Hit by Peugeot Capital Raise Speculation

Anticipation, Angela Carter once wrote, is the greatest part of pleasure. But investors haven’t gotten too much pleasure form the showcase of Tesla’s (TSLA) Model X this weekend if they’d expected a big bump in the stock. Its shares have gained just 1.2% to $180.82.

The San Jose Mercury News has the details:

If Hollywood movie makers were trying to create the quintessential Silicon Valley scene, they couldn’t have done any better than the one Saturday afternoon in the 4100 block of El Camino Real.

Hundreds of people, nearly all of them snapping photos with iPhones, milled about at the opening of America’s newest Tesla store, one mile from Stanford University and three miles from Google’s campus. The sleek, white showroom gleamed. Flat screen monitors touted the benefits of the company’s pricey and tech-hip all-electric vehicles. Music from a live DJ pulsed. And the valet parking was thick with visitors arriving in Tesla Model S sedans they already owned…

The company has so far received 6,000 orders for its Model X SUV, with customers putting down $5,000 for the standard version and $40,000 for the signature version, even though Tesla has not announced the price of the vehicle or exactly when it will begin delivery. Most deliveries are expected in 2015, and the base price is expected to range from $70,000 to $90,000.

General Motors (GM), meanwhile, is dropping as Peugeot contemplates raising capital. GM owns 7% of the company. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The board of PSA Peugeot Citroën will meet later this month to consider a potential capital injection from Chinese partner Dongfeng Motor Corp., according to a person familiar with the matter, as the ailing French auto maker looks for financing to ensure its survival into the second half of this decade.

Battered by dwindling sales in Europe, its core market, Peugeot is continuing to rack up losses and is burning cash that it badly needs to develop new products and expand its industrial footprint outside Europe in coming years.

Peugeot’s board meeting, set for Oct. 22, comes after months of talks with Dongfeng about a potential expansion of their existing partnership outside China, including an investment in Peugeot, people familiar with the matter said.

The French government also could participate in a capital increase alongside Dongfeng, to help fund its development projects after 2016, though Peugeot hasn’t formally asked it to do so, one of the people added.

Shares of General Motors have dropped 0.5% to $35.16, while Ford Motor (F) has dipped 0.3% to $17.07 and Toyota Motor (TM) has decline 0.8% to $130.64.