The role of Elon Musk as the cost -saving tsar of President Trump and his immersion in right -wing politics seem to make his attention to Tesla at a dangerous moment for the electric car company.
Tesla car sales fell by 1 percent last year, even when the global market for electric vehicles grew by 25 percent. Mr. Musk did not tackle that underperformance and he has not offered a concrete plan to breathe new life into the sale. He has also not provided any details about a more affordable model that Tesla says it will start producing this year. In the past Mr. Musk for months or years by promoting vehicles before they appeared in showrooms.
And he has spent a lot of his time since the Washington elections and in Mr Trump's house in Florida – far from Austin, Texas, where Tesla has his head office and a factory, or the San Francisco Bay Area, where it has a factory has and technical offices.
In the past decade, Tesla went from a wrestling start-up to increasing the global car industry. The company sold millions of electric cars and generated huge profit, forcing established car manufacturers to invest billions of dollars to catch up. Tesla's success has been reflected in his rising share race, which helped to make Mr. Musk the richest person in the world.
But now he seems to have lost interest in the grinding activities of developing, producing and selling cars, say investors and analysts. That could have serious consequences for his company and the car industry, which employs millions of people worldwide.
Even before he joined the Trump administration as head of the Ministry of Efficiency of the Government, Mr. Musk's running had led several companies and experts in the field of corporate governance to wonder if he was too thin. In addition to Tesla, Mr. and runs Mr. Musk SpaceX, whose missiles astronauts and satellites wear for NASA and others; X, the social media site; And Xai, which develops artificial intelligence. And he wants to colonize Mars.
“We do not have a CEO that is entirely aimed at guaranteeing that Tesla remains a leader in the EV room,” said Brad Lander, the New York City Comptroller, who supervises employee pension funds that Tesla shares of Tesla own $ 1.25 billion.
Mr. Lander said he wanted Mr. Musk would stay on the Tesla board and give up his chief executive tasks to someone who would do the work full -time. “That's not too much to ask,” said Mr. Lander. “That is just the basic model of shareholders' board in America.”
Few or no managers have ever had such a series of responsibilities, said Eric Talley, a professor in Columbia Law School that focuses on corporate governance. And although some companies of Mr. Musk benefit from his ties with the president, it is virtually impossible for the commercial and political interests of Mr. Musk not to collide with manners that Tesla and his other companies can harm, Mr Talley said.
“The more you split your loyalty,” said Mr. Talley, “the more it will be difficult to claim that you had an undivided loyalty to every company.”
Mr. Musk and Tesla did not respond to e -mails who were looking for comments.
In the past, he and the board of the company have defended Mr. Musk's management of Tesla and rejected the idea that he was too thin. They have pointed to the rising share price and robust profit from the company as proof that Tesla did not suffer because of his other obligations.
The support of Mr. Musk for right-wing leaders at home and in Germany, Great Britain, France and other countries seems to have alienated a considerable number of customers.
There are signs that Mr. Musk's political activities and the reduced presence at Tesla also generate dissatisfaction within the company.
The dissatisfaction was clear during an unusual meeting last month at the offices of the company in Palo Alto, California, where countless employees expressed their frustrations.
A senior executive who spoke during the meeting told the employees that he too was discouraged by the “Mercurial” behavior of Mr. Musk and the departure of some senior executives who had had a moderating influence. The polarizing social media posts of the Chief Executive and the work in the Trump administration were chasing customers away, making some employees left and made it more difficult to recruit new talent to Tesla, the manager said, according to an audio recording of the meeting That was assessed by the new York Times.
The executive power urged employees to concentrate on their work and the comments of Mr. To coordinate musk on x and other forums. “I just ignore it and think about what we are working on and is it exciting for me and does it have an impact?” the manager said. “That is the best advice I can give to deal with it.”
The recording was first reported by the Washington Post.
There are signs that some investors also have doubts. The stock price of Tesla has fallen by 25 percent since mid -December, although it has still risen by around 40 percent since the elections. The S&P 500 stock index has risen by around 6 percent since the elections.
Many investors still have faith in Mr. Musk. That is why Wall Street Tesla treats more than three times as valuable as Toyota, the world's largest car maker.
Optimistic investors believe that the company will develop cars that can control itself in most circumstances. Ark Invest, an investment firm that has long been Bullish about Mr Musk's efforts, estimates that Tesla could control half of an estimated market of $ 10 trillion for autonomous Rije-Hailing services.
“I see a path for Tesla as the most valuable company in the world by far,” said Mr. Musk in January. The growth, he added, would “be overwhelming due to autonomous vehicles and autonomous humanoid robots.”
Where Mr. Musk is surprisingly not worried about is Tesla's largest company today: selling cars.
During a telephone meeting last month to discuss the results of Tesla's fourth quarter, a financial analyst asked him to work out his plans to sell more cars to take advantage of the competitiveness of Tesla in technology with which cars can in some cases manage, Accelerate and slow down to their own. Mr. Musk said he did not understand the question and said that the company already had millions of cars on the road.
The company has lost the market share to BYD in China; BMW and Volkswagen in Europe; and Hyundai and General Motors in the United States. Some Tesla drivers such as the musician Sheryl Crow are so upset by the political activities of Mr. Musk that they sell their cars or say they will not buy another.
In January, Tesla's turnover fell by 59 percent in Germany, 63 percent in France and 12 percent in Great Britain after Mr Musk had approved right-wing politicians and had made inflammatory statements on social media. Tesla's turnover fell by 12 percent in California last year, which is good for almost a third of the electric cars that are sold in the United States.
“The Hate is Real,” wrote Ross Gerber, Chief Executive by Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, on an X post together with a photo of a cyber truck who had damaged someone with an obscenity.
But political recoil is not the only problem of the company.
Tesla remains dependent on two vehicles, the Model 3 and Model Y, for 95 percent of its turnover. BYD has more than a dozen electric models, some costs much less than $ 20,000. The Model 3 starts at $ 42,000 in the United States before taking into account a federal tax credit of $ 7,500.
Car experts say that Tesla seriously needs a cheaper car to breathe new life into the sale. But last year Mr. Musk was delayed indefinitely to build a cheap car in Monterrey, Mexico, who would have cost $ 25,000.
The company has promised to produce a new model in its existing factories at the end of June, but it has not shown a prototype or provides details. Analysts expect it will be based on model 3 and cost much more than $ 25,000.
“You would think they would double and try to take advantage of the management they have on other players,” said Michael Lenox, a professor of business at the University of Virginia. “It raises the question,” he added, “has there been a lack of attention?”
Some investors said that Mr. Musk's lack of interest in the sale of cars was clear in how little he had said about Mr Trump's initiatives who could harm Tesla's sale.
The Chief Executive of Ford, Jim Farley, said last week that some of Mr. Trump's plans to withdraw Biden ERA stimuli for electric cars, to force the company to deny employees. But Mr. Musk has said nothing publicly about them.
Especially environmental activists are very concerned that Mr. Musk, who once spoke about electric vehicles as a solution for climate change, has connected himself with deniers of climate change.
“It is really worrying that Elon is more focused on DC than on promoting EV production,” said Katherine Garcia, director of the Clean Transportation for All Campaign in the Sierra Club.
Mr. Musk has argued that electric cars do not need any stimuli from the government. “You can't stop the arrival of electric cars,” said Mr. Musk in January. “It's going to happen.”
