Gravity Catching Up on Musk as Tesla Stock Tumbles

Elon Musk’s DC power grab hasn’t been the Tesla-stock booster investors were expecting.

Last month, Tesla shipments to China fell 49% year-over-year while European sales also declined. I Photo: Tesla X

Tesla shares have fallen more than 40% since January, erasing all of the “Trump bump” that briefly saw the stock surge by over 90% after Election Day.

Musk, whose wealth is overwhelmingly tied to his Tesla holdings, has personally lost $121 billion from his net worth over the past three months, Allison Morrow wrote in an analysis for CNN.

Why hasn’t Musk’s rapid ascent into oligarch territory helped rescue his “baby” (as President Trump called Tesla during the pair’s bizarre ad-like press conference last week)?

There are two main reasons: Tesla sales are cratering worldwide, and its CEO isn’t doing anything to stop it. While Musk is holed up at the White House looking for ways to restructure the federal government, Tesla’s core business is in crisis.

The company reported its first-ever decline in global sales last year, and 2025 isn’t looking much better. Wall Street analysts from RBC, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Mizuho, and JPMorgan have all lowered their delivery forecasts for Tesla.

A CNN poll last week found that 53% of Americans dislike Musk, while 60% say he lacks the experience and judgment necessary to make sweeping cuts in government.

In China, Tesla is losing market share to domestic carmakers. Last month, Tesla shipments to China fell 49% year-over-year. European sales are also declining.

In Germany, where consumers have been outraged over Musk’s support of a far-right nationalist party with links to Nazis, sales plummeted 76% last month compared to the previous year.

Tesla stock suffered a double hit in China earlier in the week.

Its No. 1 Chinese rival, BYD, unveiled a new charging system that can provide its latest model cars with 250 miles of range after just five minutes—twice as fast as Tesla’s charging rate.

On the same day, Tesla launched a free month-long trial of its “Full Self-Driving” software in China, a sign that the company is trying to regain its declining market share. Tesla shares fell 5% in the US on Monday and another 5% after RBC lowered its price target, citing growing domestic competition.