Tue Mar 04 17:30:00 UTC 2025: ## Tesla Stock Plummets Amidst Musk’s Controversial Actions and Company Challenges
**NEW YORK, March 5, 2025** – Tesla’s stock experienced a significant 28% drop in March, its steepest decline since December 2022, following a challenging month marked by declining revenue, new tariffs, and CEO Elon Musk’s increasingly controversial activities.
The stock’s fall follows a weekend social media post by Musk suggesting a potential 1000% gain in five years, despite Tesla reporting an 8% drop in automotive revenue and a 23% decline in operating income in the fourth quarter. The company cited reduced average selling prices as a primary factor. Further impacting Tesla’s performance are new tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, impacting key suppliers.
Musk’s involvement in the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), characterized by sweeping federal cuts and deregulation, has also drawn criticism. His controversial actions on X (formerly Twitter), including promoting Germany’s AfD party and spreading misinformation about the Ukraine conflict, have fueled anti-Tesla sentiment. This backlash has manifested in vandalism, protests, and a reported decline in European sales, with Germany experiencing a 60% drop in January registrations. A “Tesla Takedown” movement, gaining traction with celebrity support, encourages divestment from Tesla.
While Musk highlights Tesla’s future in self-driving technology and humanoid robotics, the company lags behind competitors like Waymo in commercial robotaxi services. Despite Musk’s announcement of an unsupervised Full Self-Driving service launch in June, Chinese automakers offer comparable automated driving systems at lower costs.
Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. The plummeting stock price raises concerns about the future of the electric vehicle giant amidst both internal challenges and external controversies surrounding its CEO.
First Piper 