Tesla shares fell on Monday and reached their lowest point since before election day, because investors registered the impact of falling sales and the protests increase about the controversial political role that Elon Musk, the Chief Executive of the company, has accepted.
During the afternoon trade, the shares of the electric car maker fell by more than 11 percent and more than 50 percent of a peak from the middle of December. The loss of the day exceeded the decrease of 2 percent in the S&P 500.
The steep rise in the shares of Tesla that followed the elections of Donald J. Trump as president, and the appointment of Mr. Musk as de facto government -cost Tsar, has evaporated together 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 with the White House would benefit Tesla, which removes the legal obstacles for the company's autonomous driving technology.
Instead, the omnipresent presence of Mr. Musk in Washington proved to be liability. Investors are worried that Mr. Musk has not spent enough time managing Tesla when the sale of the company's cars drops.
Tesla has become the target of increasingly intensive protests by people who are furious about the leading role of Mr. Musk in cutting jobs from Park Rangers and other officials, while foreign help and other programs are stretched.
Last week someone in Brand Tesla set charging stations near Boston; Schoten were fired at a Tesla dealer in Oregon; And demonstrators were arrested for a non -violent protest at a Tesla dealer in Lower Manhattan.
The political recoil is at least partially accused of gloomy sales numbers in Europe last month, including a fall of 76 percent in the Tesla turnover in Germany, the largest car market on the continent. Mr. Musk has approved extreme right -wing parties in European countries, also in Germany. Analysts also attribute sales falls to a lack of new models and increasing competition.
In January Volkswagen sold more electric vehicles outside of China than Tesla, according to figures published on Monday by SNE Research, a research and consultancy firm in South Korea.
Tesla is likely to suffer less than other car manufacturers from the trade conflicts caused by Mr. Trump, but the company could be the victim of deteriorating 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.
