Shares of Tesla Inc. rallied 2.9% in premarket trading Tuesday, putting them on track for a third-straight gain, after data out of China showed a rebound in the electric vehicle maker’s sales last month. The China Passenger Car Association said overnight that sales of passenger cars in May rose 1% from a year ago to 1.62 million vehicles, while sales of EVs soared 177% to 185,000. Tesla sold 21,936 EVs made in Shanghai in China in May, up from 11,671 in April. Tesla also exported 11,527 made-in-Shanghai EVs in May. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the numbers suggest Tesla has handled the “shaky” public relations issues in China well, as demand rebounded well ahead of expectations. “We believe starting in the month of June Tesla will be on a 300k run-rate for deliveries in China as the growth story appears back on track in this linchpin region despite the skeptics and haters piling on from the month of April, which we continue to view as an anomaly rather than the norm,” Ives wrote in a note to clients. He affirmed his outperform rating and $1,000 stock price target. Tesla’s stock has gained 7.5% over the past three months through Monday, but has lost 14.3% year to date, while the S&P 500 has climbed 10.6% the past three months and advanced 12.5% this year.
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