Tesla shares on the decline since Elon Musk got to Washington

Tesla’s stock has never had a stretch this red.

For seven straight weeks, since Elon Musk went to Washington to join the Trump administration, shares in his automaker have declined, closing Friday at $US270.48 ($428). It’s the longest such losing streak for Tesla in its 15 years as a public company.

Tesla shares finished the week down more than 10 per cent and at their lowest level since November 5, Election Day, when they closed at $US251.44. Since the stock peaked at almost $US480 on December 17, it has lost well over $US800b in market cap.

Several Wall Street firms last week, including Bank of America, Baird and Goldman Sachs, cut their price targets on Tesla.

In slashing their target from $US490 to $3US80, analysts at Bank of America cited concerns about the company’s falling new vehicle sales and the lack of a recent update from Musk on a “low-cost model.”

Goldman Sachs, which cut its price target on the stock to $US320 from $US345, also pointed to falling electric vehicle sales for Tesla in the first two months of the year across several markets in Europe, China and parts of the US.

The Goldman analysts noted that Tesla faces “a tough competitive environment for FSD” in China, where key competitors “do not generally require a separate software purchase for smart driving features.” FSD, or Full Self-Driving (Supervised), is Tesla’s partially automated driving system, which the company sells as a premium option in the U.S.

Baird added Tesla to its “bearish fresh picks” this week, with analysts at the firm writing that “production downtime” will complicate “the supply-side of the equation” for Tesla as the company shifts to manufacturing the new version of its Model Y SUV.

But Wall Street isn’t just concerned about fundamental metrics such as sales and production figures. Investors are also trying to assess how much Musk’s politics and work in the White House will pressure Tesla, and for how long. “Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration adds uncertainty to the demand-side,” Baird analysts wrote.

Before taking on his role as adviser to President Donald Trump and as leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, Musk was already heading up his many private ventures, including artificial intelligence startup xAI, social media company X, and aerospace and defense contractor SpaceX.

Concerned bulls

Now Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has become the public face of the Trump administration’s effort to dramatically reduce the federal government’s workforce, spending and capacity. Meanwhile, he continues to post incendiary political rhetoric on X, slamming judges whose decisions he doesn’t like, and promoting false Kremlin talking points about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Anti-Musk and anti-Tesla sentiment have been rising in the U.S. and Europe, with an outburst of protests and suspected criminal acts of arson and vandalism at Tesla facilities. Even the most bullish analysts, and many fans, have had to acknowledge the impact of Musk’s politics on the desirability of Tesla and its products to a wide swath of customers and investors.

EV advocates at Cleantechnica, which has long promoted Tesla on its site, ran an ethics-focused column Thursday pondering whether Tesla owners should sell their cars and whether the Tesla board should fire Musk as CEO.

Musk and Tesla didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In a note out Friday, Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives wrote, “Tesla bulls find themselves with their back against the wall facing global negative sentiment around Musk/DOGE and the Trump Administration.” He called it a “gut check moment for the Tesla bulls (including ourselves).”

Wedbush said it’s using the sell-off as an opportunity to add Tesla to its “Best Ideas” list, and set its 12-month price target at $US550.