30th March, 2024 – In the rocky start of 2024, Tesla, the electric car giant, had a big drop. Its stock fell almost 30%, making it the worst in the S&P 500 index. This was very different from the larger market’s good rise, with the S&P 500 going up by 10.2%, its best in a first quarter since 2019. Tesla had three main problems: not great predictions, more issues in the big Chinese market, and a series of controversial moves by the company’s CEO, Elon Musk.
At first, things seemed good for Tesla as it said it had record-breaking sales in Q4, with 485,000 cars, and met its year-end goal for 2023 with 1.8 million cars. But the good feelings from this were soon gone when the company said it expects slower growth than the year before. This, plus less profit from car sales after big price cuts, made investors and experts worry. Furthermore, Tesla had trouble in China. Even though it cut prices hugely, it still didn’t sell many cars. It had to cut its car making at the Giga Shanghai factory, showing it couldn’t match its supply with the low demand in the area.
On top of all this, Elon Musk’s odd behavior and the unusual ideas he shared made investors nervous. What he said about Tesla’s future in AI and his wish for more control over the company made people think there might be big changes at Tesla. Finally, Tesla’s legal fights, like the one about Musk’s huge $56 billion pay, made people worry even more about how Tesla runs and its duty to its stockholders. Even with all these tough problems, investors stayed a bit positive . They are waiting to see if the next sales report might turn things around for Tesla and give a bit of hope in a hard time for the big EV company.
Author: Simona Merlo