There’s finally some Tesla (TSLA) shareholder momentum to fire Elon Musk
There finally appears to be some Tesla shareholder momentum to fire Elon Musk from the company after years of concerns being ignored by the board and most shareholders.
However, probably nothing will happen as long as the stock (TSLA) is up.
For years, we have expressed concerns about Elon Musk steering Tesla away from its mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport and energy.
It has intensified over the last year when Musk threatened Tesla shareholders to breach his fiduciary duties, fired Tesla’s entire charging team in a kneejerk reaction, dove headfirst into a worrying social media addiction, shared countless misinformation on social media, and financed politicians who have directly attacked Tesla and whose policies go directly against Tesla’s mission.
Most of these would be firable offenses at most companies, but we also reported for years that Tesla has massive governance issues with the board basically being completely under Musk’s control despite him owning just 13% of the company.
This leaves things in the hands of shareholders, who are limited to voting once a year. During Tesla’s shareholders meeting in June 2024, they made it clear that they are still for Musk, with most of them voting in line with what the board (aka him) recommended.
Since the inauguration and Musk’s salutes, the blowback, and his response to the blowback, there seems to be more traction amongst Tesla shareholders to remove.
Currently, the most popular post on the Tesla Investor Club on Reddit, one of the biggest Tesla shareholder communities, is about removing Musk as CEO of Tesla, and there have been a few of these types of posts getting traction over the last few weeks.
The post focused on Tesla’s lack of new models other than the Cybertruck in the last 5 years and the lack of growth in delivery volumes despite the rest of the EV market growing.
It also makes the argument that Musk is not following his own guiding principles when it comes to work dedication:
Assuming a few things…
- Musk is good at keeping organizations focused on long term hard to reach goals
- Musk is good at managing engineering teams
- Taking Musk’s own words as truth: management and engineers co-locating with production and “in person” at the office interactions are net positives.
- Taking Musk’s own words as truth: employees not willing to do #3 should move on.
Musk is not doing #3 and thus is no longer performing #1 and #2 at Tesla for the mission. Additionally, with his own logic, he is now in the group of employees that were let go (#4).
This is not a bad argument considering that, in addition to virtually leading six companies and working out of the White House for his new DOGE government department, he was caught literally tweeting about non-Tesla stuff in the middle of Tesla’s earnings call last week.
All that while, he rages against employees who work from home because he believes it is less productive.
While many Tesla shareholders agreed with the post, the main objection was that “the stock is up, why mess with something that works?”
This is indeed a problem for Tesla fans who want to see Musk go. With the board not doing anything, it would come down to shareholders voting the board out and forcing a confidence vote on Musk.
Shareholders are afraid that pushing Musk out would result in him selling his stock and triggering a big correction in Tesla’s stock.
Considering Tesla is currently trading at an insane price-to-earnings ratio of 200 and closer to 400 if you remove ZEV credits and the Bitcoin gain, would that be such a bad thing if it meant realigning with the mission?
Electrek’s Take
Obviously, I don’t think we would see that happen if there were a confidence vote tomorrow. I think the stock would need to come down to reality to motivate shareholders to take action.
Personally, I think being scared of a selloff because of Musk leaving is shortsighted. Tesla’s fundamentals are looking worse by the day, and this quarter should be the worst in years.
If Tesla stock doesn’t crash this quarter, Tesla will likely be trading at a 500+ P/E after reporting Q1 2025 earnings. The last time Tesla traded at these levels, Musk warned Tesla employees that the stock would get crushed “like a soufflé being smashed by a sledgehammer” if it didn’t show profit growth.
A few years later, Tesla is in an even worse situation, considering profits from its main business, automotive, are actually crashing, while profits from self-driving cars and robots are realistically still years away.
It’s true that removing Musk would likely result in a short-term stock crash, but I think it would be good for Tesla long-term.
First, Musk is undoubtedly negatively affecting Tesla’s sales. Removing him would likely give Tesla some breathing room when it comes to demand.
Secondly, Musk has created a huge liability for Tesla by consistently promising self-driving capability on all cars produced since 2016. This needs to be addressed and fixed, and Musk is clearly not the person to do this.
Tesla needs leadership to realign the company with its mission and derisk the self-driving effort. I think there’s room to still aim for Musk’s grand vision for Tesla, but without consistently lying and overpromising.
Call me crazy, but I think the company would fair better with a competent full-time CEO instead of an egomaniac wannabe oligarch who consistently lies to shareholders, engages in resource tunneling with his private competing company, and is deeply lost in one of the worst cases of social media addiction that I’ve ever seen.
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With the federal EV incentive set to expire at the end of September, Ford is urging its dealers to prepare for a rush of buyers.
Ford warns dealers of upcoming EV rush
Like most automakers, Ford is preparing for a shakeup under the Trump Administration. After the “One Big Beautiful Bill” was signed into law on July 4, the $7,500 and $4,000 tax credit for new and used EVs will no longer be available after September 30.
In a memo sent to dealers this week, Ford warned, “demand is expected to increase as the deadline approaches for eligible vehicles.”
The letter (via CarsDirect) confirmed that the EV tax credit “will no longer be available for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025.”
Ford blamed Trump’s new bill for the expected rush of EV buyers ahead of the incentive deadline. Although the Mustang Mach-E doesn’t qualify for the credit, since it’s built in Mexico, Ford is passing it on through a leasing loophole. While it’s still available, the F-150 Lightning does qualify for the credit when purchased or leased.
Last week, Ford launched its new “Zero, Zero, Zero” summer sales promo, offering a $0 down payment, 0% interest for 48 months, and zero payments for the first 90 days on most Ford and Lincoln vehicles.
The new campaign replaces the employee pricing for all campaign, which ran through the first half of the year. Despite outpacing the industry with overall sales rising 14% in Q2, Ford’s EV sales fell by nearly a third.
Ford spokesperson Martin Gunsberg told Electrek that electric vehicle sales were lower due to the Mustang Mach-E recall and the transition to the 2025 model year. “Our dealers can’t sell what they don’t have,” Gunsberg said.
Although the Mach-E doesn’t qualify for the credit when purchased, it’s still one of the best EV lease deals available right now, starting at $395 per month. The offer is for 36 months with no down payment required.
Ford isn’t the only one preparing for big changes over the next few months. Honda extended its ultra-low lease offer on the Prologue until the end of September. Hyundai and Kia are slashing prices with generous discounts ahead of the deadline. The 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 might be the best EV deal at just $179 per month right now.
Looking to snag the savings while they are still available? You can use our links below to find deals on top-selling electric vehicles in your area.
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Environment
Tesla engineer admits Tesla didn’t maintain Autopilot crash records amid trial over fatal crash
A Tesla engineer admitted in court that Tesla didn’t maintain Autopilot crash records before 2018, 3 years after launching the ADAS system, in a trial over the death of a bystander in a crash involving Autopilot.
Tesla is currently on trial in Miami over a crash involving a 2019 Tesla Model S that was operating on Autopilot.
The case attempts to place some responsibility on Tesla for creating complacency with drivers, who were led to believe Autopilot could do more than it actually could.
George McGee was driving his Model S on Autopilot in Key Largo in April 2019 when he dropped his phone and looked down to pick it up when the car blew past a stop sign at a T intersection, and crashed into a parked Chevrolet Tahoe.
22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon and her boyfriend Dillon Angulo were standing next to the parked Tahoe. Benavides died and Angulo was seriously injured.
The police charged McGee with reckless driving, but the families of the victims sued both McGee and Tesla. McGee settled with the plaintiffs, but Tesla hasn’t.
The automaker has been sued many times over fatal crashes related to its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems. Recently, Tesla settled a few of those lawsuits, but this one is the first to make it to trial.
The plaintiffs allege that Tesla’s communications regarding Autopilot have led drivers, such as McGee, to become complacent and use Autopilot in a manner that led to this crash. They also claim that Tesla misrepresented the safety of Autopilot and failed to deploy proper driver monitoring to ensure its safe use.
The trial started on Monday and on Thursday, the jury heard testimony from Tesla software engineer Akshay Phatak who said that Tesla didn’t even complete records of Autopilot crashes before March 2018 (via Law360):
At the end of the first day of testimony, jurors watched part of the videotaped deposition of Tesla software engineer Akshay Phatak in which he said Tesla did not maintain records before March 2018 for evaluating whether it was safer to operate Tesla vehicles with the autopilot engaged or shut off.
When asked if Tesla maintained records or data before 2018 that kept track of the number of crashes that occurred per vehicle mile driven with the autopilot engaged, he replied simply, “No.”
That’s despite Tesla launching Autopilot almost 3 years prior. The jury will hear more of Phatak’s deposition today after Tesla attempted to keep it out of court over claims that it contains “sensitive trade secrets.”
Plaintiffs also challenged Tesla’s Autopilot safety report. We previously highlighted how Tesla suddenly stopped reporting the statistics and only started again a year later, while updating older data.
Dr. Mendel Singer testified on Tuesday and highlighted the discrepancy:
He noted that Tesla offered corrections to the vehicle safety report in January 2023 after finding some errors and miscounts. The crash data for when the autopilot was on stayed about the same, but the crash rate for when the autopilot was off went up by about 50% in the updated report, he said.
Mary Cummings, a professor and director of the Autonomy and Robotics Center at George Mason University and a longtime critic of Tesla’s self-driving efforts, is expected to testify today.
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General Motors and Redwood Materials are joining forces to take EV battery tech beyond the road and onto the grid. The two companies just signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding that sets the stage for turning both new and second-life GM batteries into energy storage systems to support the US’s rising electricity demand.
The collaboration aims to help the grid keep up with the surge in power-hungry applications, from AI data centers to electrified transport and industry.
“The market for grid-scale batteries and backup power isn’t just expanding, it’s becoming essential infrastructure,” said Kurt Kelty, GM’s VP of batteries, propulsion, and sustainability. “Electricity demand is climbing, and it’s only going to accelerate… GM batteries can play an integral role.”
Redwood launched a new venture in June called Redwood Energy that repurposes both new and used EV battery packs into fast and cost-effective energy storage systems. Today’s announcement allows Redwood to use second-life batteries from GM EVs and new GM battery modules to create US-built energy storage systems.
This isn’t just a future plan – it’s already happening. GM’s repurposed EV batteries are currently powering the biggest second-life battery project in the world. Located in Sparks, Nevada, Redwood’s 12MW/63MWh installation is also the largest microgrid in North America and supports Crusoe, an AI infrastructure company.
“Electricity demand is accelerating at an unprecedented pace,” said JB Straubel, Redwood’s founder and CEO. “Both GM’s second-life EV batteries and new batteries can be deployed in Redwood’s energy storage systems, delivering fast, flexible power solutions.”
And the timing couldn’t be better. AI data centers alone are expected to triple their share of US electricity use, from 4.4% in 2023 to 12% by 2028. That’s driving the urgent need for scalable, domestic energy storage.
GM and Redwood Materials say they’ll share more details on their plans later this year.
Read more: Arizona brings a huge grid battery online ahead of peak demand
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