By Owen Tucker-Smith
Tesla stock is on pace to erase its post-election gains, with shares on track for their worst day since the fall of 2020.
Disappointing sales data and concerns over Chief Executive Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration have sent Tesla shares sliding this year. Some investors have expressed concerns that Musk is not focused on Tesla, as he has spent much of 2025 slashing jobs in the federal government as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
While some bullish investors and analysts insist that the coming year will bring growth and new technologies at Tesla, shares are down more than 45% this year, and more than 36% over the past month.
UBS on Monday lowered its first-quarter delivery forecast for the electric-vehicle maker, noting low delivery times for Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in key markets. Lukewarm deliveries in Europe have recently been driven by Germany, France, Norway and Spain, the bank noted, while performance in the U.K. has been stronger.
The analysts also flagged that Chinese manufacturer BYD's advanced driver-assistance systems "is damaging for TSLA in China and makes their product less competitive."
Other analysts remain bullish. Last week, Wedbush analysts wrote that while Musk's involvement in the administration has triggered brand concerns, the firm believes that under 5% of Tesla sales across the world are at risk due to those concerns. "Importantly," they added, "we expect Musk will better balance his time between DOGE and Tesla/SpaceX over the course of 2025 and some of these distraction issues will fade."
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said he believes the company is at the beginning of one of the biggest phases of innovation in its history.
"For the last fifteen years, many times, the bears and the skeptics thought it was the end of Tesla," Ives said. "The narrative that the Musk brand is going to deteriorate the growth trajectory of Tesla is misguided."
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 10, 2025 16:03 ET (20:03 GMT)
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