Major pension fund tells Tesla investors: vote against Musk’s $55B pay package
A large pension fund has addressed a letter to Tesla shareholders recommending that they vote against the reelection of Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch and against Elon Musk’s massive stock package, ahead of Tesla’s shareholder meeting on June 13.
Tesla’s shareholder meeting is coming up in just a few weeks, and it’s currently doing quite a lot to convince shareholders to vote their shares on a couple of critical decisions to the company.
At issue are a number of choices, including the reelection of Tesla’s board of directors, whether or not to move the company’s incorporation to Texas instead of Delaware, and whether or not to reinstate Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $55 billion pay package which was recently voided due to misleading statements and Elon’s close personal relationships with the Tesla Board.
That court ruling looms large over the decisions for Tesla shareholders in this vote, as most of the proposals up for a vote are related to the ruling. There’s the direct vote on reinstating Musk’s pay package, the vote to reelect the company directors whose personal relationships are intertwined with Musk and thus reduce their level of independence, and the vote to move the company’s incorporation to Texas, which was a knee-jerk reaction by Musk after the Delaware Court of Chancery voided his pay package.
Each of the proposals require a simple majority of votes to win, except the proposal to move the company’s incorporation – that requires a majority of all shares outstanding to vote in favor, which is a high bar given that turnout will not be 100%.
Many have chimed in with their opinions, including Tesla itself, which spent ad money to influence the vote, a move we haven’t really seen before. Tesla also put up a website pitching the vote, and Musk and many Tesla-related accounts have been tweeting a lot about getting people to cast their votes – both trying to increase turnout, and to get friendly voters to hopefully cast the vote in their direction.
But now we’ve heard from some of the US’ largest pension funds, those managing New York City’s pension systems, along with a number of other investment groups. In a letter, they’re suggesting that shareholders vote against the pay package and against directors Kimbal Musk (Elon Musk’s brother) and James Murdoch (son of Rupert Murdoch, one of the world’s most influential climate change deniers).
The group sent a letter, written by Brad Lander, the Comptroller of the City of New York, on behalf of several NYC city employees pension funds. NYC pension funds are some of the largest in the US. The letter was also signed onto by SOC Investment Group, Amalgamated Bank, United Church Funds, Nordea Asset Management, SHARE, UNISON, and AkademikerPension (a pension fund for Danish schools).
In it, the group argues that the pay package does not serve Tesla shareholders. It argues that the package won’t have any incentivizing effect, and that it is excessive. It also points out that the reimplementation of the package was decided on in a rushed manner by a single director, which it calls “recklessly fast,” echoing the Delaware Court’s prior decision.
It also calls Musk a “part-time CEO,” saying that the intent of the original reward was so that Musk would focus his time on Tesla for the full ten-year period of time that the reward covered. The letter says: “If this was one of the primary reasons for the 2018 pay package, then it has been an abysmal failure, as six years later Musk’s outside business commitments have only increased.”
Musk currently runs Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, NeuraLink, xAI, Twitter, and the Musk Foundation. He has gained control of or founded several of these companies after the original 2018 stock reward, and observers have noted his excessive commitment to Twitter lately, after spending $44 billion to purchase it which he had to sell Tesla stock to fund.
The letter states that there have been several instances of Musk making decisions that benefitted himself, but not shareholders. This includes his split attention on his other companies, his use of Tesla employees to do work for those other companies, his poaching of engineers from Tesla to move them to his other companies. The board has not stepped in to stop any of these moves. Musk’s recent threat to stop Tesla’s development of AI/robotics if Tesla shareholders don’t give him back the shares he sold to buy Twitter came after the letter was sent.
The letter says that this shows lack of independence from Tesla’s directors, focusing primarily on Kimbal Musk, who is Elon Musk’s brother, and James Murdoch, who is a close friend of Elon, having taken several family vacations together and attending Kimbal’s wedding.
It also describes close relationships with several other board members and the exceptionally high compensation they have received, all of which threaten independence of the Tesla board. Standard corporate ethics suggest that board members should be independent to ensure effective and unbiased direction of the company. But only two board members are up for a vote at this time, and the letter asks shareholders to vote against both of them.
Beyond these arguments, the letter also states that Tesla’s performance has seen a downturn lately, and that that downturn has been related to Musk’s focus on Twitter, where he seems to be spending more time than Tesla. It notes drops in various metrics, financial and otherwise, showing disorganization and lack of leadership, and shows that these metrics have dropped particularly since Musk shifted focus to Twitter.
Many signatories of the same group sent a previous letter in April to board chair Robyn Denholm outlining these concerns and requesting a meeting, but did not receive a response.
You can read the full letter as part of an SEC filing here. The last time to vote your shares is June 12, at 11:59pm Eastern time, or at Tesla’s shareholder meeting.
Electrek’s Take
Personally, I think the letter makes good points. I think it’s quite clear that there are a lot of problems with Tesla’s corporate governance, particularly after Musk has recently fired or reassigned so many high-level executives. Currently Tesla only shows three people on its corporate governance page, one of whom was recently reassigned to China, leaving only the CFO and “part-time CEO” running the company.
This would be a problem even if the CEO was an exceptional leader who was fully focused on the job and making good decisions, but Musk increasingly seems as if he does not meet that bar.
In particular, firing the entire Supercharger team, despite it being perhaps the most successful team within Tesla and led by one of its most competent executives, Rebecca Tinucci, seems like a poor decision. And that decision seems even worse when learning that the firing wasn’t due to team performance, but due to Musk himself being mad at Tinucci’s refusal to trim her team further, firing her and her entire 500-person team as petty retaliation and causing chaos with Tesla suppliers.
But the most effective point in the letter, I think, is that this pay package doesn’t incentivize any future behavior. Those in favor of the package have stated that it should be given as a reward for meeting the goals laid out in 2018 – but it is now 2024, not 2018.
That means that we have more information than we had in 2018, and particularly recently, that information doesn’t look good. Tesla’s performance lately and in particular the performance of its CEO has ben poor and erratic, and seems increasingly so. So it seems like quite a reach to suggest that shareholders should take $55 billion out of their own pockets (via dilution) – more than its total profits for the last 4 years combined – and give it to the second-richest man in the world with no strings attached.
I say “no strings attached” because the package does not ensure or target any future performance, it merely reinstates a package that was illegally given in the first place. So it can’t help shareholders going forward, since it has no incentives going forward.
It seems like the only way this would “help” Tesla is by retaining a CEO who has become increasingly erratic, who has made threats against his own company, who has directed the spending of the company’s money to influence a vote, who has a too-close relationship with the board, and who has recently taken steps to harm tens of thousands of employees either through haphazard firings (after all, the $55 billion that Musk is asking for could pay each of the 14,000+ employees he just fired a six-figure salary for 40 whole years) or through low morale that continues to affect employees today.
And, importantly, we need a strong Tesla in order to keep the transition to EVs moving at optimal speed. Tesla is one of the few companies with the size and interest to keep pushing the transition forward, as other companies waffle on a transition that is very important for America – and the world. If Tesla’s CEO is acting erratically, that’s a problem for everyone.
So maybe if Musk doesn’t get what he wants and takes his toys and leaves as he has threatened to do, that wouldn’t be so bad for Tesla, after all.
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Mitsubishi is partnering with Ample and Yamoto Transports to deploy an innovative new battery swap network for electric cars in its Japanese home market — but it’s not just for electric cars. Mitsubishi Fuso commercial trucks are getting in on the action, too!
Despite a number of early EV adopters with an overdeveloped concept of ownership, battery swap technology has proven to be both extremely effective and extremely positive to the overall EV ownership experience. And when you see how simple it is to add hundreds of miles of driving in just 100 seconds — quicker, in many cases, than pumping a tank of liquid fuel into an ICE-powered car — you might come around, yourself.
That seems to be what Mitsubishi thinks, anyway, and they’re hoping they’ll be your go-to choice when it’s time to electrify your regional and last-mile commercial delivery fleet(s) by launching a multi-year pilot program to deploy more than 150 battery-swappable commercial electric vehicles and 14 modular battery swapping stations across Tokyo, where the company plans to showcase its “five minute charging” tech in full view of hundreds of commercial fleets and, crucially, the executives of the companies that own and manage them.
A truck like the Mitsubishi eCanter typically requires a full night of AC charging to top off its batteries, and at least an hour or two on DC charging in Japan, according to Fuso. This joint pilot by Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks, and Ample aims to circumvent this issue of forced downtime with its swappable batteries, supporting vehicle uptime by delivering a full charge within minutes. The move is meant to encourage the transport industry’s EV shift while creating a depository of stored energy that can be deployed to the grid in the event of a natural disaster — something Mitsubishi in Japan has been working on for years.
Trucks like the eCanter already serve a number of roles throughout the global truck market, including municipal waste collection, regional delivery support, and more.
The pilot is backed by Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Technology Development Support Project for Promoting New Energy,” with local delivery operator Yamato Transport testing swappable EVs for delivery operations on both its eCanter light-duty trucks and Mitsubishi Minicab kei-class electric vans.
Electrek’s Take
Electrifying the commercial truck fleet is a key part of decarbonizing city truck fleets – not just here in the US, but around the world. I called the eCanter, “a great product for moving stuff around densely packed city streets,” and eliminating the corporate fear of EV charging in the wild just makes it an even better product for that purpose.
Here’s hoping we see more “right size” electric solutions like this one (and more battery swapping tech) in small towns and tight urban environments stateside somewhat sooner than later.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Mitsubishi, Fuso.
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After becoming the first European brand to offer fully electric versions of every model it sells — and at the same price as the ICE models — Opel is going even further, with a new, AWD electric SUV that should give American Jeep fans hope for a new electric Cherokee!
Now part of the Stellantis, rather than GM portfolio of brands, Rüsselsheim-based Opel showed off the first official pictures of its new Opel Grandland Electric AWD — the company’s first all-electric SUV to feature the “Blitz” performance emblem and all-wheel drive.
“Our top-of-the-range Grandland SUV is a milestone for Opel,” says Opel CEO Florian Huettl. “Customers already have a choice of battery-electric drive, plug-in hybrid and hybrid with 48-volt technology. We are now offering even more choice with the Grandland Electric AWD and thus ensuring that our customers can enjoy maximum efficiency and safety in diverse weather and road conditions, combined with plenty of driving fun.”
Stellantis gets it right in Europe
Opel says its new, AWD Grandland is its most aerodynamically efficient model yet, with a drag coefficient (Cd) of just 0.278. That efficiency, paired with similarly efficient electric motors and a 73 kWh li-ion NMC battery give the electric crossover a 501 km (311 mile) WLTP range, while a combined 325 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque should make for suitably spirited acceleration to go along with all that green cred.
Suspension and handling, too, are promised to deliver on what Opel claims is a “typical” Teutonic driving experience in the Grandland AWD:
Both driving pleasure and comfort are further emphasized by dampers with frequency selective damping technology. This unique technology comes as standard on the Grandland Electric AWD and incorporates a second hydraulic circuit in the damper chamber to mechanically adapt the damping force in relation to the frequency. Depending on the situation, road surface conditions and driving style, it enables different damping characteristics for comfortable gliding at high frequencies – i.e. with short impacts such as on cobblestones or a manhole cover – as well as for a sporty, ambitious driving style with more direct contact with the road at low frequencies. The Grandland reacts even more immediately and directly to any command from the driver and, as is typical for Opel, remains stable when braking, cornering and at high speeds on the Autobahn.
OPEL PRESS RELEASE
The Opel Grandland Electric AWD ships with four standard drive modes that include “normal,” eco, sport, and 4WD mode, which simulates locking axles and true 4×4 off-road performance. The ESP and traction control systems adopt specific settings to enhance grip in 4WD mode as well, and maximum power and torque are instantly available.
Electrek’s Take
As you maybe could tell by now, feeding European Stellantis EVs into an AI image generator and asking it to “make them into Jeeps” is one of my new favorite things to do. This new Opel is no different, and the resulting image (above) paired with the models’ stated specs give me hope that the next wave of Jeep EVs will do better than the Wagoneer S at attracting buyers. All they really need, I think, is the right name — and the right price, to be winners.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Opel.
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Like a 90s “gifted” kid that was supposed to be a lot of things, the electric Jeep Wagoneer S never really found its place — but with dealers discounting the Jeep brands forward-looking flagship by nearly $25,000, it might be time to give the go-fast Wagoneer S a second look.
SKIP THE STORY: get straight to the deals.
Whether we’re talking about Mercedes-Benz, Cerberus, Fiat, or even Enzo Ferrari, outsiders have labeled Jeep as a potentially premium brand that could, “if managed properly,” command luxury-level prices all over the globe. That hasn’t happened, and Stellantis is just the latest in a long line of companies to sink massive capital into the brand only to realize that people will not, in fact, spend Mercedes money on a Jeep.
That said, the Jeep Wagoneer S is not a bad car (and neither is its totally different, hideously massive, ICE-powered Wagoneer sibling, frankly). Built on the same Stellantis STLA Large vehicle platform that underpins the sporty Charger Daytona EVs, the confusingly-named Wagoneer S packs dual electric motors putting out almost 600 hp. That’s good enough to scoot the ‘ute 0 to 60 mph in a stomach-turning 3.5 seconds and enough, on paper, to convince Stellantis executives that they had developed a real, market-ready alternative to the Tesla Model Y.
With the wrong name and a sky-high starting price of $66,995 (not including the $1,795 destination fee), however, that demand didn’t materialize, leaving the Wagoneer S languishing on dealer lots across the country.
That could be about to change, however, thanks to big discounts on Wagoneer S being reported at CDJR dealers in several states, according to our friends at the Car Dealership Guy podcast.
- Jimmy Britt Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Georgia, has a Wagoneer S with an MSRP of $67,590 listed at $43,104 ($24,486 off)
- In Florida, Taverna Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Fiat has a $67,590 Wagoneer S slashed to $43,138 ($24,452 off)
- Chris Nikel Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat in Oklahoma has a Wagoneer S listed for $43,425 ($24,165 off)
“Stellantis bet big on electric versions of iconic American brands like Jeep and Dodge, but consumers aren’t buying the premise,” writes CDG’s Marcus Amick. “(Stellantis’ dealer body) is now stuck with expensive EVs that need huge discounts to move, eating into already thin margins while competitors focus on [more] profitable gas-powered vehicles.”
All of which is to say: if you’ve found yourself drawn to the Jeep Wagoneer S, but couldn’t quite stomach the $70,000+ window stickers, you might want to check in with your local Jeep dealer and see how you feel about it at a JCPenneys-like 30% off!
Jeep Wagoneer S gallery
SOURCES | IMAGES: Car Dealership Guy, CarScoops, and CarsDirect.
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