The role of Elon Musk as Tsar to reduce President Trump and his immersion in right politics seem to divert his attention from Tesla at a perilous time for the electric automobile company.
Tesla’s car sales dropped by 1% last year, even if the global electric vehicle market increased by 25%. Mr. Musk did not address this sub-performance, and he did not offer any concrete plan to relaunch sales. He has also provided no details on a more affordable Tesla model says he will start to produce this year. In the past, Mr. Musk has spent months or years promoting vehicles before they appear in exhibition halls.
And he spent a large part of his time since the elections in Washington and at the home of Mr. Trump in Florida – far from Austin, Texas, where Tesla has its registered office and a factory, or in the region of the bay of San Francisco, where she has a factory and engineering offices.
Over the past decade, Tesla has gone from a start-up in difficulty in the upheaval of the global automotive industry. The company has sold millions of electric cars and has generated enormous benefits, forcing car manufacturers established to invest billions of dollars to catch up. Tesla’s success was reflected in its sole -up course, which helped make Mr. Musk the richest person in the world.
But now, he seems to have lost any interest in the grinding of development, production and sale of cars, investors and analysts. This could have serious ramifications for his business and the automotive industry, which employs millions of people worldwide.
Before joining the Trump administration as head of the Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government, Mr. Musk’s multiple companies had led investors and corporate governance to wonder if he was too thin . In addition to Tesla, Mr. Musk controls and directs SpaceX, whose rockets transport astronauts and satellites 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 who concentrates fully on the guarantee that Tesla remains a leader in the space of electric vehicles,” said Brad Lander, the New York controller, who oversees the employee pension funds who have Tesla shares worth $ 1.25 billion.
Mr. Lander said he wanted Mr. Musk to remain on the board of directors of Tesla and renounce his functions as director general towards someone who would do the full -time work. “It’s not to ask too much,” said Lander. “This is only the basic model of shareholders’ governance in America.”
Little, if necessary, the leaders have already had such a range of responsibilities, said Eric Talley, a professor of the Columbia Law School who focuses on corporate governance. And although some of Mr. Musk’s companies benefit from his links with the president, it is practically impossible for the commercial and political interests of Mr. Musk not to collide in a way that could harm Tesla and his Other companies, said Mr. Talley.
“The more you divide your loyalty,” said Talley, “the more difficult it will be to claim that you had individual loyalty to any business.”
Mr. Musk and Tesla did not respond to emails asking for comments.
In the past, he and the company’s board of directors have defended the management of Mr. Musk de Tesla and rejected the idea that he was too thin. They underlined the outbreak of the company’s share and solid profits as proof that Tesla did not suffer because of its other commitments.
The support of Mr. Musk to right-wing chefs at home and in Germany, in Great Britain, in France and other countries seems to have alienated a large number of customers.
There are signs that Mr. Musk’s political activities and the reduced presence in Tesla also arouse dissatisfaction within the company.
Discontent was apparent at an unusual meeting last month in company offices in Palo Alto, California, where many employees expressed their frustrations.
A senior manager who spoke at the meeting told employees that he had also been discouraged by the “Mercurial” behavior of Mr. Musk and by the departure of certain senior executives which had been a moderating influence. The polarizing publications of social media and the work in the Trump administration distinguished customers, which prompted certain employees to leave and make more difficult the recruitment of new talents in Tesla, said the director, according to an audio recording of the Meeting examined by the new York Times.
The executive urged employees to focus on their work and eliminate Mr. Musk’s comments on X and other forums. “I just don’t know it and I think about what we are working on and is it exciting for me and has an impact?” The manager said. “This is the best advice I can give for how to manage it.”
The recording was reported for the first time by the Washington Post.
There are signs that at least some investors also have doubts. Tesla’s share price has dropped 25% since mid-December, although it has always been up 40% since the election. The S&P 500 stock market index has increased approximately 6% from the elections.
Many investors have always trust Mr. Musk. This is why Wall Street treats Tesla as being more than three times more precious than Toyota, the largest car manufacturer in the world.
Optimistic investors believe that the company will develop cars that can behave under most conditions. Ark Invest, an investment company that has long been optimistic about Mr. Musk’s efforts, believes that Tesla could control half a market estimated at 10 dollars for the autonomous carpooling services.
“I see a path for Tesla being the most precious company in the world,” said Musk in January. Growth, he added, “would be due to an overwhelming majority of autonomous vehicles and autonomous humanoid robots”.
What Mr. Musk seemed surprisingly carefree is Tesla’s biggest company today: Selling cars.
During a conference call last month to discuss the results of the fourth quarter of Tesla, a financial analyst asked him to develop his plans to sell more cars to take advantage of Tesla’s competitive advantage in technology that allows cars to direct, speed up and slow theirs. Mr. Musk said he did not understand the issue and said the company already had millions of cars on the road.
The company has lost market share against Byd in China; BMW and Volkswagen in Europe; and Hyundai and General Motors in the United States. Some Tesla pilots such as the musician Sheryl Crow are so upset by Mr. Musk’s political activities that they sell their cars or say they don’t buy another.
In January, Tesla sales fell 59% in Germany, 63% in France and 12% in Great Britain after Mr. Musk approved right-wing politicians and made inflammatory statements on social networks. Tesla sales fell 12% last year in California, which represents nearly a third of electric cars sold in the United States.
“Hatred is real,” wrote Ross Gerber, Managing Director of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, on a post X with a photo of a cybertruck that someone had degraded from obscenity.
But political return is not the only problem of the company.
Tesla remains depends on two vehicles, model 3 and model Y, for 95% of its sales. Byd has more than a dozen electric models, some cost much less than $ 20,000. Model 3 starts $ 42,000 in the United States before taking into account a federal tax credit of $ 7,500.
Car experts say Tesla needs a cheaper car to revive sales. But last year, Mr. Musk indefinitely delayed the intention of building a car at low prices in Monterrey, Mexico, which would have cost $ 25,000.
The company has promised to start producing a new model in its existing factories by the end of June, but it has not displayed prototype or details provided. Analysts expect it to be based on model 3 and costs much more than $ 25,000.
“One might think that they would double and try to capitalize on their heads they have on other players,” said Michael Lenox, business professor at the University of Virginia. “It raises the question,” he added, “was there a lack of attention?”
Some investors have said that Mr. Musk’s lack of interest in the sale of cars was obvious in the little that he had said about Mr. Trump’s initiatives that could harm Tesla sales.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said last week that Trump’s plans to repeal the Biden era in electric cars may force the business to dismiss workers. But Mr. Musk did not say anything publicly about them.
Ecologists in particular are very concerned about the fact that Mr. Musk, who once spoke of electric vehicles as a solution for climate change, has combined with climate change negators.
“It is really worrying that Elon focuses more on DC than on the progress of electric vehicle production,” Katherine Garcia, Clean Transportation for All at Sierra Club, said Katherine Garcia.
Mr. Musk argued that electric cars do not need government incentives. “You cannot stop the advent of electric cars,” Musk said in January. “It will happen.”
