Elon Musk pledges his own RTO as Tesla sales continue to weaken
Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk's latest pledge for his own RTO (return to work) comes as more negative data emerges.
Per the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), Tesla EV registrations (a proxy for sales) in Europe fell a whopping 49% in April compared to a year ago, to 14,228. Meanwhile, overall EV registrations in the region (which includes the UK and the European Free Trade Association) rose 34.1% in April, with overall registrations down 0.3%.
Tesla's April drop marks its fourth straight down month in Europe, while other reports show EVs from Volkswagen, BMW, and China's BYD making gains.
In a further sign of demand weakness, April's registrations results include Tesla's newly refreshed Model Y, its best-selling vehicle that should have seen a sales bump due to new features.
Tesla shares were higher in early trade as President Trump once again backed off tariff threats, this time focused on the European Union.
Tesla's sales tumble in Europe comes after the company reported sliding first quarter sales, its worst quarter for deliveries since the second quarter of 2022.
But Musk's latest communique via his X platform indicates he's serious about leaving Washington, where he nominally led the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and performing his own RTO: back to Tesla, SpaceX, and X.
'Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms,' he said in part following an X outage, adding that he 'must be super focused on 𝕏/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out.'
In addition to the Starship launch and SpaceX update that he's giving later on Tuesday, Tesla itself is gearing up for a crucially important robotaxi trials in Austin, starting at the end of July.
Musk and Tesla have bet the future of the company on self-driving and the ability for its cars to perform robotaxi services. Tesla's dedicated robotaxi — the Cybercab — is slated for a 2026 launch as well. And Tesla's long-awaited more affordable EVs are expected to be revealed in the first half of the year.
Musk's return to work has been teased since April, when he said his time in DC would be dropping.
"Starting early next month, in May, my time allocation to DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] will drop significantly," Musk told investors on Tesla's Q1 earnings call. But reports showed Musk was still spending time in DC in April.
Last week during two separate interviews with Bloomberg and CNBC, Musk reiterated his rededication to his companies. He also said he sees himself in the Tesla CEO chair for at least the next 5 years.
Investors cheered the news of Musk fully returning, though some believe the damage may already have been done, and part of that lies with product decisions - that Musk himself spearheads.
'We view Elon's announcement that he will return 24/7 to $TSLA X and xAI as a non-event since it won't likely change TSLA's declining delivery trajectory,' Future Fund managing partner and Tesla investor Gary Black said on X on Monday.
Black added: 'We remain concerned the new more affordable TSLA model due out in 3Q will be a scaled-down Model 3 or Model Y that is not a new form factor and therefore will not increase TSLA TAM.'
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.
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