Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Elon Musk has urged Tesla employees to “hang on to” the carmaker’s shares in an effort to reassure them that the carmaker’s future is “incredibly bright” despite plummeting sales, a series of safety recalls and vandalism spurred by his political activism.
The unusual communication to staff came after Donald Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick also urged Fox News viewers to “buy Tesla” in a sign of growing alarm as Tesla’s shares have plunged 51 per cent since mid-December.
“If you read the news, it feels like . . . Armageddon,” Musk, the carmaker’s chief executive, said during a meeting with employees broadcast on X late on Thursday.
“I understand if you don’t want to buy our product, but you don’t have to burn it down. Stop being psycho!” he said referring to the rise in vandalism cases against Tesla cars.
Tesla and its dealerships have become a target for protests in the US and Europe in response to the billionaire’s outsized influence in the White House, his attack on the US federal government as the de facto head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and his support for the far-right AfD party in Germany.
Sales have also plunged in leading European markets in recent months while demand has soared for “I bought this before Elon went Crazy” car stickers on Amazon.
The company is also facing multiple regulatory probes into Musk’s claims about the capabilities of its driver-assistance systems. On Thursday, Tesla recalled more than 46,000 Cybertrucks in the US to replace an exterior panel that could fall off while driving.
“There are times when there are rocky moments,” Musk said. “But what I’m here to tell you is that the future is incredibly bright and exciting,” he added, citing the company’s efforts in autonomous driving and robotics.
Musk has previously said Tesla’s pivot to autonomous driving and artificial intelligence could take its valuation as high as $5tn. The shares rose more than 2 per cent on Friday, taking the company’s market capitalisation to $760bn.
“I think in five years, we’ll probably have regulatory approval I think globally, so you’ll have autonomous Teslas on every continent,” he said. “So what I’m saying is, hang on to your stock.”
But the Tesla chief has repeatedly missed targets to roll out self-driving taxis. He first promised fully autonomous rides from Los Angeles to New York by the end of 2017. In 2019, he predicted that 1mn robotaxis would be on the road by the following year.
