Elon Musk and the US trade representative Jamieson Greer listen to during a meeting from the Cabinet to the White House on March 24.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images
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Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images
While the sales and benefits of Tesla plunge, CEO Elon Musk says that he will spend less time working for the federal government – but that he does not intend to stop his work with Doge completely.
“If the America ship breaks down, we all go down with it,” he said during an appeal with investors and analysts on Tuesday evening, defending the time he spent concentrating on the reduction in the size of the federal government. He also rejected protests against Tesla as being “paid” and said that the demand for vehicles of the company remains sharp despite a sharp drop in sales.
The Tesla’s quarterly profits report, published approximately an hour before the appeal, has shown that the company’s net income was 71% plunged into annual shift and that cars’ sale income dropped by 20%.
Analysts expected bad news: they already knew Tesla’s deliveries in the first quarter of 2025 Down 13% compared to a year ago. It was the quarterly decrease in business sales. Meanwhile, sales of electric vehicles in general increased 7% on the same period.
Musk and other Tesla analysts stressed that several factors affected these bad sales, especially that some customers were waiting to buy a model when the popular vehicle was updated. But there is evidence that the destruction of the brand of Tesla among the Democrats and the Liberals – which remain much more likely than republicans and conservatives Shopping for an EV – is also a major factor.
Musk’s controversial political work has considerably affected the reputation of Tesla’s brand, according to several surveys. Tesla exhibition halls were the sites of repeated protests In recent months. In some cases, Vandals hit Tesla vehicles. And the feeling that driving a Tesla now Signals support for musk and president Trump has haunted a few Current Tesla pilots And keep some buyers of electric vehicles from the brand.
Musk rejected this, saying that “the absence of macro problems, we do not see any reduction in demand”.
He attributed a return of flame to his work Doge to “those who received useless and fraudulent dollars”, saying without evidence that the protests against Tesla are “paid”.
Tesla Takedown, the group that organizes the demonstrations, wrote in a statement sent by e-mail that the demonstrators are not paid. “Volunteer hosts and participants are advancing because they believe in democracy and the rule of law, not because a billionaire pays them,” the group wrote in the press release sent after the appeal. “The irony is rich from a man who spent 277 million dollars for Donald Trump to be elected.”
A company faced with other other winds
Tesla prices used fell 10.1% in the past 12 months, according to data Iseecars.com, while the price of used cars, in general, increased by 1%.
This is good news for anyone who wishes to buy a used Tesla. But this drooping value is a blow for the current owners of Tesla and a red flag for new car buyers. And because Tesla, as a business, has a large number of her own vehicles – all Tesla Loué technically belongs to Tesla – this hurts the company directly.
When calling the profits, Tesla leaders hosted their heads down the value of second -hand cars as contributing to the reduction in profits. There are other opposite winds: while Tesla is less affected by prices than certain rivalsThe leaders said they would also injure Tesla – and Musk said that he had tried, without success, to persuade President Trump to support the lower rates.
But on the whole, Musk said that Tesla was “not downwards” and argued that the long -term profitability of the company is based on robotaxis and autonomous robots – and not the more conventional activities of the sale of cars.
Investors want to see Musk focus on his businesses
Dan Ives, a stock market analyst who has long believed in Tesla and Elon Musk, said before this call that it would be a “red situation” if Musk does not report an imminent departure from Doge. Ives always thinks that Tesla could have a brilliant future – if Musk pays attention to the business.
“We consider this as a range at the time of the road,” wrote Ives in a note widely read this week – echoing the famous “fork in the road” sends emails that Musk Employees received when he cut jobs on Twitterand what federal employees Received this spring.
During the gains call on Tuesday, Musk said he would reduce the time devoted to Doge Work-because most of the work was “mainly done,” he said, not because of Tesla pressure. But he clearly indicated that he was not completely leaving Doge.
“I will have to continue to do so, I think, for the rest of the president’s mandate, just to make sure that the waste and the fraud that we have stopped will not return,” said Musk. (As NPR and other points of sale have pointed out, the allegations of Musk to stop the massive quantities of waste and fraud were not supported by data DOGE presented.)
“I will continue to spend a day or two a week on government issues as long as the president would like me to do it and as long as it is useful,” said Musk. He did not comment on his status as “Special government employee“This should expire towards the end of May, given the 130 -day ceiling on the work that people can do for the government in this job category.
It was enough for Ives, who said at NPR by e-mail after the call that his team considers it as “the start of the end of his time at the White House of Trump”, as he had hoped.
Other investors seem to feel in the same way; The Tesla equity price increased in after-hour.
Tesla’s continuing dominance is not guaranteed
Tesla had a huge influence on the growth of electric vehicles in the United States and around the world. And he undeniably dominated the electric vehicle market in the United States
But as the sales of electric vehicles in China, Chinese manufacturers reveal technological breakthroughs, the characteristics of the products and the sales numbers which are the desire of other car manufacturers. The Chinese EV giant byd is now elbow with Tesla to World leadership for electric vehicle sales.
In the United States, even if Tesla sales are decreasing, the company still sells many more electric vehicles than any other car manufacturer. But Tesla’s share on the electric vehicle market has dropped below 50% and shows each sign of continuation to slip.
Overall, According to Cox AutomotiveNew sales of electric vehicles increased by 7% last year, while Tesla sales decreased. This is because companies like GM, Toyota and Honda have sold An increasing number of EVEnough to compensate for the narrowing of Tesla sales – then some.
A more affordable EV or new models in the aging range could help Tesla win back a market share, but the call for profits was struck off on the details of these fronts.
Musk continues to be confident in Tesla’s ability to be the most precious business in human history. He also rejected the threat of being overwhelmed by Chinese companies on artificial intelligence, the technology on which he marked the future of Tesla.
He said he was convinced that Tesla would have the best IA technology in the world.
“I am a little concerned with the fact that in the ranking, the ranking of two to 10 will be Chinese companies,” he said. “But I am not worried that the first be Tesla.”
