Is Musk's Twitter Obsession To Blame For Tesla's Slump?

James Moore asks whether falling sales are due to an erratic owner or problems for the entire electric vehicle industry

Is Twitter – sorry X – killing Tesla? The latest results from Elon Musk’s “other” business don’t make for happy reading. Wall Street has valued the electric car maker as a fully charged growth stock in anticipation of double-digit gains every quarter. But in the first three months of 2024, the company encountered engine problems. It stopped growing.

For the first time in nearly four years, the carmaker posted a decline in quarterly deliveries - down 8.5 per cent - missing analysts' forecasts in the process, an unforgivable sin on the street of dreams. Tesla has been cutting its prices but the tactic has failed to work. When you do that and you still lose sales...

well it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what's going to happen to your financial results.

It was hardly surprising to see the shares taking a bath but they have actually been struggling for some time now, having shed a third of their value over the past six months. Those investors still sticking around can't say they weren't warned.

What is the root cause of the problem? Are Musk's increasingly controversial outbursts damaging the brand? There is perhaps no big company in the world whose corporate identity is so closely tied up with that of its CEO. His personal brand sells him as a maverick tech polymath, reinforced by his multitude of other interests.