To me, the whole thing appears to be an industrial Ponzi scheme. It has ‘sharp correction’ stamped all over it.
I assume shareholders have some strange belief that Musk is the greatest asset and worth far more than all of the plants, production lines, designs, and brand name that Tesla owns. I recently read a book about Musk, Character Limit, dealing with his purchase of Twitter, and he comes across as an drug-addled idiot with an outsized ego.
A judge recently ordered Tesla to pay damages of $200 million after a jury in Miami ruled that it bore significant responsibility for a 2019 crash when its Autopilot driver assist technology failed and caused the death of a 22-year-old woman out walking with her boyfriend. The company plans to appeal, and the likely damages will certainly be reduced. But it's hardly good publicity, is it?
Next, shareholders have accused Musk and Tesla of repeatedly overstating the effectiveness of, and the future prospects for, their Robotaxi autonomous driving technology, artificially inflating Tesla’s financial prospects and stock price. They have launched a legal action. But even that news only resulted in the share price falling by a mere 6.1% over two trading days, wiping out just $68bn of market value.
The legal action follows a public test in June, near the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas that "showed the vehicles speeding, braking suddenly, driving over a curb, entering the wrong lane and dropping off passengers in the middle of multilane roads. The National Highway Transit Safety Administration (NHTSA), the main transportation regulator in the US, is investigating the Robotaxi’s pilot test."
I would never trust a self-driving car to drive me anywhere, at any time, under any circumstances and certainly not one connected to Elon Musk.
Despite this, the Tesla board has granted Musk 96 million more shares in Tesla, adding to the 410 million (13%) he already owns. The new allocation is worth about $29 billion at today's price. That is 29,000 million dollars!!! His 506 million shares in total would be worth about $150 billion.
Yet registrations in Europe are falling off a cliff. Sales have taken a hit in Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, France, and Italy, and according to Carscoops, the numbers are rapidly declining in two of the continent’s most crucial markets: the UK and Germany.
Tesla sold just 987 vehicles in the UK last month, down from 2,462 units in 2024, while in Germany, Tesla managed to shift only 1,100 vehicles, and its sales there over the last 12 months are down an astonishing 57%! This is after launching the updated Model Y in Europe.
Total sales are also down. Globally, the company delivered 384,122 vehicles in the second quarter, down 13.5% from 443,956 units a year ago. US sales were 16% down in April.
Tesla is also facing increasing competition from rivals, particularly Chinese EV manufacturers, which are rapidly gaining market share and catching up in terms of sales and technology. BYD has overtaken Tesla in global EV sales and revenue. Both European and US competitors are snapping at Tesla's heels with better products at lower prices. The only way for Musk's EV business and main source of wealth is down, I would suggest.
The company's latest addition was the Cybertruck, surely in the running for the ugliest and most impractical vehicle ever produced. It has been an utter flop, plagued by quality and reliability problems. Originally, he was forecasting annual sales of 250,000 units, another example of him overstating the success of his products. The first year was just over 41,000, and now he’s barely managed 10,712 in the first six months of 2025, meaning around 20,000 for a full year.
Ford and General Motors are now outselling the Cybertruck in electric pick-up trucks in the American market, and Chevrolet is not far behind.
On every front, the business appears to be in serious trouble, yet the share price continues on as if nothing has happened. It cannot last forever. If you own any Tesla shares, do yourself a favour and sell while you can.
Immigration
