The 3 defining moments behind Tesla stock's wild ride this year
Simply saying Tesla stock is down 15% this year doesn't do justice to the wild ride it's been on.
Shares were up 28% in February before rebounding 23% in May.
Tariffs, slowing vehicle sales, and Musk's political dealings have been primarily responsible for the volatility.
2025 has been wild for Tesla shareholders, and it's not even halfway over yet.
The EV-maker's stock has been on a roller-coaster ride, with shares dragged sharply lower on multiple occasions by tariffs, slumping car sales, and CEO Elon Musk's involvement with politics.
There have also been bright spots, like Tesla's share spike on Monday after officially launching its long-awaited robotaxi service.
But it's been anything but a straight path in either direction. A tumultuous February bled into March, with shares falling nearly 50% from highs, then rallying 30% in a matter of weeks. The stock then chopped around for a while before surging 23% in May. June has been a different story, down 6%. The net result? A 20% decline.
Feeling whipsawed yet? That's normal for anyone trying to follow Tesla's relentless gyrations. Especially those shareholders who enjoyed a torrid post-election rally, and returns of more than 200% across 2023 and 2024.
Despite all the noise around Tesla, its year-to-date stock performance boils down to three main developments that have dictated price action and sentiment. These are detailed below.
The sharp declines and volatility in Tesla stock began when Musk — who backed President Donald Trump on the campaign trail — became more entangled in politics. The inflection point came as the Tesla CEO took up a role as a "special government employee" shortly after Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.
This spread fresh concern among investors that his time with the administration was distracting from his duties leading his companies, and shares dropped 37% between the inauguration and the end of March.
Shares dropped another 9% in the first week of April, but ended the month 9% higher amid a broader market rebound and Musk's announcement that he would step back from the Department of Government Efficiency.
Musk's involvement in DOGE and his cost-cutting spree across the federal government was also seen as impacting Tesla's brand, Wall Street analysts said, pointing to protests, Tesla boycotts, Cybertruck vandalism, and calls from investors for Elon Musk to step down as CEO.
In a note in April, analysts at Wedbush Securities pointed to Musk's involvement in the White House and called a "code red" situation for the company.
"IF Musk chooses to stay with the Trump White House it could change the future of Tesla/brand damage will grow," the firm said.
Big investors, including major pensions, have demanded that Musk spend more time at Tesla, and have pleaded with the board to rein him in.
Meanwhile — due to a combination of backlash over Musk's politics and growing international EV competition — Tesla's car sales have tumbled globally. Each new report of declining global sales put pressure on an already-unstable stock.
In February, Tesla sales were down 45% year-over-year in Europe, which spurred an 8% single-day share sell-off. In March, Tesla sales were down 59% year-over-year in Germany, and down 12% in China.
Tesla sold just over 128,000 vehicles in the US during the first quarter of 2025, a decline of 8% year-over-year.
In the EU, vehicle sales dropped 46% from January through April compared to the same period last year, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association.
In April, Tesla's sales in China dropped another 6% year-over-year, marking the seventh-straight monthly decline, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
"In summary, delivery numbers are coming down and growth in the auto business this year may be off the table," analysts at William Blair wrote in a note in March.
As sales have dropped, investors are putting their faith in Tesla's coming robotaxi reveal to sustain the rally in the stock since April lows.
Most recently, Musk's public spat with Donald Trump has been the stock's most recent headwind. After a four-month honeymoon, Elon Musk and Trump ultimately came to blows over the the Republican tax and spending bill that's currently being marked up in the Senate.
Tesla shares cratered 14% on June 5, the day that the feud hit a fever pitch. The two billionaires began a multi-day spat over the "Big Beautiful Bill" that played out publicly on social media.
The sell-off intensified as Trump, when speaking to reporters at the White House, said he was "very disappointed" in Musk's reaction.
The president also threatened to cancel some government contracts with Musk's firms in a post on Truth Social, and, in a separate post, said that Musk was "wearing thin" and "went CRAZY" after being asked to leave the White House.
Finally, Musk and Trump appeared to call a truce. On Friday, Trump said he hoped Musk "does well" with Tesla.
Over the weekend, Musk also took down several of his posts on X. On Wednesday, he expressed regret about his posts from the prior week, adding that some of them "went too far."
"This is an important step with Musk apologizing for some of his back and forth with Trump that started this battle between the former BFFs. As we said this week, Musk needs Trump and Trump needs Musk," Wedbush wrote in recent research.
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According to JEDEC-standard TQV tests, PowerVia passed multiple stress conditions with zero failures, including highly accelerated stress testing at 110°C and 85% humidity for 275 hours, extended high-temperature bake tests up to 1000 hours at 165°C, and 750 cycles of temperature swings from –55°C to 125°C. These results confirm that PowerVia can withstand harsh operating environments, without compromising structural or electrical integrity. In addition to CPI reliability, Intel evaluated the impact of PowerVia on SRAM aging and performance stability. Under conditions equivalent to 1000 hours of high-temperature operation, SRAM arrays maintained stable minimum operating voltage (Vmin) with margin, showing no signs of degradation. This suggests that PowerVia does not negatively affect sensitive on-chip memory and is robust enough to support both digital logic and embedded SRAM under extended stress. Together, these findings are meant to affirm PowerVia's readiness for deployment in high-performance, long-lifecycle computing platforms. In addition to improving performance, reducing power consumption, and enabling higher transistor density, Intel's 18A simplifies production flows and simplifies chip design. By moving power delivery to the backside, Intel eliminates the need for a front-side power grid, which, combined with direct EUV patterning, lowers the total number of masks and simplifies the front-end metal process. By using low-n absorber reticles with tailored dimensional adjustments, Intel also enabled single-pass EUV patterning for the M0–M2 metal layers. This simplification of the lower metal layers reduces process complexity and helps offset the cost of adding extra backside metal layers, which are based on mature, low-cost fabrication techniques. As a result, the overall design process becomes easier and cheaper. In addition, the backside metal layers of 18A's PowerVia are designed for low resistance and high thermal conductivity, which helps manage the increased power density from the GAA transistors. Also, carrier wafer bonding is optimized for heat removal through the backside, addressing the thermal challenges introduced by high-performance transistors. Finally, PowerVia is compatible with advanced packaging methods like Foveros and EMIB, though we already know this from the fact that Panther Lake uses 18A tiles as well as Foveros 3D. Intel's comprehensive technical overview of its 18A process node has highlighted the architecture, performance, and manufacturability improvements that position it as a competitor to TSMC's upcoming N2. The 18A process introduces Intel's second-generation RibbonFET (GAA) transistors and the industry's first mass-production-ready backside power delivery network, PowerVia. Together, these innovations enable up to 25% higher performance or 36% lower power consumption compared to Intel 3, while also increasing transistor density by about 30%. Intel's PowerVia contributes an 8–10% density gain, 12% RC improvement in metal layers, and up to 10 times lower voltage droop. The new node has also passed stringent JEDEC reliability tests, including 1000-hour high-temperature aging and extensive thermal cycling to verify that it can be used for designs meant to work for a long time. Additionally, Intel further streamlined front-end patterning using single-pass EUV at M0–M2, thereby reducing mask counts and simplifying the design. However, whether or not 18A can help Intel restore some of the lustre to its brand remains to be seen, as the company continues to wade its way through rocky waters. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
