Tesla stock is getting hammered again this week, as shares of the electric vehicle maker led by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, faced further pressure from Wall Street as Musk grows embedded in the White House and questions swirl about Tesla’s brand reputation globally and its standing in its crucial Chinese market.
Tesla showrooms have faced a spate of protests in recent weeks.
Shares of Tesla dropped more than 6% to about $223 by mid-morning Tuesday, building on Monday’s 5% dip as the stock appears poised to decline for a ninth consecutive week.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Tom Narayan cut his price target for Tesla stock by $120 to $320, maintaining his outperform rating for Musk’s company while “rightsizing expectations.”
Narayan cited “intensifying” competition for Tesla in China, which accounted for 21% of Tesla’s 2024 sales, predicting Chinese car companies will “dominate” the market in the country for driverless vehicles, which Musk has emphasized as the future of his company.
Driving down Tesla shares Monday was a note from Mizuho analysts led by Vijay Rakesh lowering their price target for Tesla shares by $85 to a still bullish $430, as the analysts slashed their 2025 vehicle delivery forecast from 2.3 million to 1.8 million, a more than 20% cut that falls well below consensus forecasts of 2 million deliveries.
Rakesh chalked up Tesla’s “sales woes” to weakening “brand perception” in the U.S. and the European Union, a “deterioration in geopolitics” and increasingly challenging competition in China from domestic EV firms.
Two of Tesla’s Chinese EV competitors made major announcements this week which may further weaken Tesla’s positioning in the country. BYD unveiled a new fast charging system which may charge cars in less than a third of the time Tesla’s current chargers allow, while Zeekr said it will offer its self-driving system for free in China. RBC said it expects Tesla’s market share in China to halve to 10%, and relatedly lowered its valuation for Tesla’s full self-driving and robotaxi units from $1.26 trillion to about $850 billion.
Mizuho analysts said Tesla’s U.S. sales last month declined 2% year-over-year as the broader EV market rose by 16%, its China sales cratered 49% as EV sales in the country grew by 85% and its Germany sales tanked 76% as the European nation’s EV market expanded by 31%.
Tesla stock ended Friday trading at its lowest end-of-week level since just before the election. Shares of Tesla are down 44% year-to-date, the worst loss of any company listed on the S&P, according to FactSet data. Mizuho and RBC joined the likes of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and UBS in slashing its delivery forecasts for Tesla. “We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly,” Last week, JPMorgan analysts described the recent melting of Tesla’s perception, especially in pockets of the world in which Musk inserted himself into right-wing politics, such as Germany. Though Musk is perhaps the closest ally of President Donald Trump, the latter’s hawkish tariffs are a major drag on Musk’s main source of wealth, Tesla. In a letter to the Office of the United States Trade Representative submitted last Tuesday, Tesla lobbied the Trump administration to take a “phased approach” on tariffs and consider Tesla’s EVs contain “certain parts and components” which “are difficult or impossible to source within the United States,” a break from Trump’s frequently shifting tariff deadlines and targets. About 53% respondents to a CNN poll published last week said they hold a negative opinion of Musk compared to roughly 35% with a positive view and about 11% with no take.
Tesla stock is still up 1% from last Monday, when it suffered a 4.5-year-worst 15% amid a broader selloff tied to economic uncertainty fears linked to Trump’s tariffs.
Musk’s $321 billion net worth makes him easily the richest person on the planet, though that’s down more than $140 billion from its peak of $464 billion set in December when Tesla stock traded at about $480 following a post-election upward swing.