Pacific Crest's Brad Erickson, a Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) bear, is taking a more conservative view of the Consumer Reports change in perspective. "This could be a big deal for TSLA," he said.

Pacific Crest has been negative on the stock over concern about near-term execution risk and general fundamental risk. Erickson believes Tesla's investment story requires: (1) The company to have more demand for cars than it can produce for a very long time; and (2) the belief that its cars are awesome. He believes the second requirement may now be questioned because of the Consumer Reports issue which will bring general fundamentals into question.

He views Q4 skeptically based on execution risk and believes that the bad fundamentals will be weighed more heavily in people's minds. He also indicated that he will be open to reducing his rating if he sees signs that demand is affected by the announcement.

Erickson said now is not the time to own Tesla.