$Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ It's hard to envision Tesla (TSLA) without Elon Musk leading the way. And we don't have to: Musk confirmed Tuesday that he plans to stay put. For a brand that has become inseparable from its key executive, that sounds like a godsend and a curse. Even a refocused Musk faces mounting problems at the pioneering electric vehicle company.
Last month, Tesla reported its worst quarter for sales in three years. Subsequent data for April showed continued signs of weakness.
Like its megacap peers, Tesla has been on a tear over the past month, buoyed by a tariff reprieve and a trade war thaw. No other "Magnificent Seven" member has risen as much. But that’s another way of saying investors have been on a bumpy ride.
Zoom out to a broader timeline, and the stock is a laggard. Tesla’s decline of 13% so far this year is the worst performance in the Magnificent Seven aside from Apple (AAPL), whose China-heavy production has left the company especially vulnerable to tariffs.
As Musk steps away from his identity as an influential political operator with a controversial track record, he's left with repairing some of the damage inflicted on Tesla because of those very activities.
"In terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future," Musk said in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum this week.
Musk said the market is the ultimate signal and scorecard for Tesla’s state of business.
"You can just look at the stock price if you want the best inside information," he said. "The stock market analysts have that, and a stock wouldn't be trading near all-time highs if it was not, if things weren't in good shape. They're fine, don't worry about it."
Even before Musk was accused of letting his political advocacy get in the way of his business duties, he was accused of letting his other business duties get in the way of Tesla. Being a multi-hyphenate CEO can be a badge of honor. But it’s long been held up by his critics and even his supporters as proof of his divided attention.
Musk has moved on. That may come as a relief to his adversaries, who want him to stay away from the public arena, and to his Tesla backers, who want him closer to home. The problem for his supporters, however, is that other people have moved on too.
Other outstanding questions drive at the heart of Musk's leadership style and the strengths he brings to the table. Are the same qualities that led Tesla to transform the auto industry enough to lead or even compete in a world with leveled-up rivals? In Tesla's earlier years, Musk's unwavering vision of producing superior machines linked to renewable energy served as a spiritual mission statement. Now the company is struggling to maneuver in a world it helped bring about.
But Tesla isn't merely a car company anymore, as Musk himself and bullish analysts emphasize to investors. The next big bet on Tesla's future lies with the company’s autonomous hopes of supplying a fleet of robotaxis to redefine transportation, apparently set for an Austin debut in June. It's debatable, though, whether producing a driverless, on-demand taxi service has the same moral gravity or commercial urgency as Tesla's earlier climate-healing aspirations. Or whether the brand damage for car buyers will translate to taxi passengers.
To be clear, what Tesla aims to do is ambitious. In fact, developing the unproven technology and securing the regulatory permissions to have computers drive people around might be overly ambitious even with Musk's DOGE friends currently inside the Department of Transportation.
The question is whether Tesla's next phase can muster the same kind of support. And, with a different mission, a new investing and political environment, if Musk is the right leader to do it.
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