Elon Musk Faces Severe Battering This Year, Scribe Says

Linette Lopez, a Business Insider correspondent and longtime Tesla observer, says Elon Musk has been ranting about recession risks and work from home (WFH) schemes, but all of these exaggerated attacks are nothing more than a cover for his real problems at Tesla.

Photo Insert: Elon Musk's bizarre crusade to acquire Twitter hasn't helped Tesla's position, as its investors have realized his cash and attention are focused elsewhere.

“This year has been nauseating for the company. In general, the market has turned against fast-growing tech companies, bringing Tesla's stock — a poster child for the past 15 years of Silicon Valley's exuberance — down by 40% since the start of 2022. Musk's bizarre crusade to acquire Twitter hasn't helped either, as Tesla investors have realized Musk's cash and attention are being siphoned elsewhere,” Lopez reported for Business Insider.

Tesla's stock price reflects the fact that the company now faces genuine competition in the US market. Ford's F-150 Lightning reservation list is three years long. Deliveries have just begun and are proceeding as planned. Tesla has been losing market share in Europe to EVs from Renault, Hyundai, and Volkswagen.

Tesla's vehicle lineup is becoming stale, and given the company's proclivity for missing production deadlines, no one knows when the Cybertruck, which was supposed to be released last year, will be available.

Meanwhile, President Biden appears eager to assist electric-vehicle manufacturers, but only those that operate union shops (so, not Tesla), Lopez reported.

“The reality is that Tesla's profitability is still full of caveats,” according to Vicky Bryan, the founder of the research firm Bond Angle. Based on her reading of the company's financial filings, its American business is in ugly shape.

Without a hand from electric-vehicle credits paid by combustion-engine carmakers, and without income from Tesla's China operations, Bryan calculates that the company's US operations would've lost $2.4 billion last year.

On paper, its cash position is also helped along by a massive $2.1 billion add back to its profit from paying its employees (especially Musk) in stock, she concluded.

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