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Elon Musk says he is coming back to Tesla, partially moving away from his high -level and controversial role of the Trump administration which was blamed for a plunge of the company’s profits and sales.
Musk told investors to Tesla on Tuesday that he reduced his efforts to the Ministry of Government efficiency (DOGE) to a day or two per week from next month.
“From next month, May, my time allowance in Doge will drop considerably,” Musk said during a Tesla winning call.
But Musk defended his work with the Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government (DOGE), saying that it was necessary to reduce “waste and fraud” when he exhibited investors to “look beyond bumps and chicken nests immediately before us”.
He revealed the change after Tesla reported that her quarter was far from forecasts and that the climbing of the trade war was rusting the company’s prospects for the rest of this year.
Although Tesla is less exposed to prices than most other car manufacturers, he said that he should revisit his directives due to current disputes.
“It is difficult to measure the impacts of the change in global trade policy on automotive and energy food chains, our cost structure and our request for lasting goods and related services,” said the company.
Trump slapped the prices on car imports on April 3 and promised to put additional games in the months in the coming months. Tesla manufactures the cars it sells in the United States in American factories, it is therefore less exposed to prices on imported cars than other large car manufacturers, but it is important for the cars it builds in its American factories.
Musk did not specifically blame Trump for uncertainty about commercial policy, although he tried to put a certain distance between him and the administration on this issue.
“The tariff decision depends entirely on the President of the United States,” he said. “I’m going to weigh with my advice. I am in the file several times saying that the lower prices are a good idea of ​​prosperity. I will continue to plead for lower prices rather than higher prices. That’s all I can do. ”
The automaker said that his income had dropped 9%, car income lowering 20%. Adjusted income dropped by 39%. These drops were larger than forecasts. This is net income, the strictest definition of its profitability, plunged 71% compared to a year earlier.
Tesla warned investors in early April that he had suffered his greatest drop in sales in her history in the first quarter, offering 50,000 less vehicles compared to the first three months of last year. The sales diving allowed Tesla to record its lowest sales in almost three years.
The decline is astonishing for a company which, until recently, pointed out sales growth from one year to another between 20% and 100% almost each quarter, which was largely responsible for its high stock market price which made it more than any other car manufacturer in the world.
Recent analysts weeks have put a large part of the blame for the greatest drop in sales in the history of the company on the controversial role of Musk in the Trump administration as a Doge leader, who led to demonstrations outside of Tesla exhibition halls and vandalism in his facilities. There was also a sharp drop in sales in Europe, where Musk has also become politically active, supporting far-right political parties in Germany and the United Kingdom.
Musk said, without proposing proof that these demonstrators were expressed because they had received the “waste and fraud” he said that Doge had eliminated. He too Defended Doge’s work as well as the right thing for the country and the business.
“I think the right thing to do is to fight waste and fraud and try to bring the country back on the right track,” he said. “If the American ship breaks down, Tesla will go with it.”
He also admitted that there had been criticisms of the time he spent in Doge and not his work in the management of Tesla. But he said that the work of setting up Doge is “mainly done” so that he can now go away And come back to focus on Tesla again.
Tesla’s shares (TSLA) climbed 4% in the afternoon of Musk’s announcement that he moved away from Doge.
Musk also insisted that Tesla’s long -term perspectives are strong, despite the bad results of the last quarter.
“Tesla’s future is brighter than ever,” he said, saying that her problems are not as serious as they have been in the past. He promised that Tesla’s work on autonomous driving and humanoid robots, which have not yet been up to Musk’s past promises, would produce a period of “lasting abundance for all”.
“It’s a happy future,” he promised.
The Tesla (TSLA) actions have almost doubled between election day and a record in mid-December in the hope that the incoming administration would implement policies adapted to Tesla. But The action lost all this post-electoral gain, lowering 50% of its summit at the end of the negotiation on Tuesday.
The company has reaffirmed that it still planned to go out with “more affordable models” by the end of June, although its capacity list for its different models and factories does not know of production of such a model the rest of this year. He also said that his driver -free “robotaxi” will be published before next year. The company has promised that it will not have a steering wheel or an accelerator or brake pedals, and that an initial service with driverless rides will start this spring later.
Tesla’s problems are not all due to delayed products, trade and perspective on the role of Musk in the Trump administration. It also faces increased competition from electric vehicle offers from other car manufacturers, including those in China. The Chinese automaker by Chinese Byd, for example, has taken front on Tesla in sales of electric vehicles for a certain number of quarters in recent years, including the first quarter of this year, although Tesla has always maintained the advance in annual sales. But Tesla is about to lose this title in 2025 given the current sales trends.
China is the largest market for electric vehicles and the second largest Tesla market after the United States. Sales in China were not elected in the report on Tuesday results.
This story has been updated with additional reports and context.
