Tuesday, March 11, 2025 - The shares of Tesla owned by richest man in the world, Elon Musk has tumbled.
Recall that the automaker’s shares soared after Election Day as Elon
Musk took a high-profile role as a Trump adviser.
Now those gains have evaporated.
It was reported that Tesla shares plunged on Monday, hitting their
lowest point since before Election Day, as investors registered the impact of
falling sales and increasing protests over the high-profile political role that
Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive, has taken on.
At the close of trading, the electric-car maker’s shares were down more
than 15 percent for the day, and more than 50 percent from a mid-December peak.
The day’s loss was the biggest for Tesla stock since 2020 and far outstripped
the 2.7 percent drop on Monday in the S&P 500.
The steep rise in Tesla shares that followed Donald J. Trump’s election
as president, and Mr. Musk’s appointment as de facto government cost-cutting
czar, has evaporated along with more than $700 billion in stock market value.
Investors had hoped that Mr. Musk’s financial support for the Trump
campaign and his ties to the White House would benefit Tesla, helping to clear
regulatory hurdles to the company’s autonomous driving technology.
Instead, Mr. Musk’s ubiquitous presence in Washington has proved to be a
liability. Investors worry that Mr. Musk has not been spending enough time
managing Tesla when sales of the company’s cars are plunging.
Tesla has become the target of increasingly intense protests by people
enraged over Mr. Musk’s leading role in slashing jobs of park rangers and other
civil servants while gutting foreign aid and other programs.
Last week, someone set fire to Tesla charging stations near Boston;
shots were fired at a Tesla dealership in Oregon; and protesters were arrested
at a nonviolent protest at a Tesla dealership in Lower Manhattan.
The political backlash is blamed at least in part for dismal sales
numbers in Europe last month, including a 76 percent decline in Tesla sales in
Germany, the continent’s largest car market. Mr. Musk has endorsed far-right
parties in European countries, including in Germany. Analysts also attribute
sales declines to a lack of new models and increasing competition.
In January, Volkswagen sold more electric vehicles outside China than
Tesla, according to figures published Monday by SNE Research, a research and
consulting firm in South Korea.
Tesla is likely to suffer less than other carmakers from the trade
conflicts provoked by Mr. Trump, but the company could be a victim of worsening
relations with China. Tesla’s largest factory is in Shanghai, where the company
makes cars for the Chinese market and for export to Europe and other regions.
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