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Elon Musk with Tesla Model 3 in the background: Mail to the workforce
Photo: Aly Song / REUTERS
Tesla boss Elon Musk has reassured employees after the electric car manufacturer's recent price turbulence.
“Don't get too irritated by the madness of the stock market.
If we continue to excel, the market will recognize it," Musk wrote in an email to employees on Wednesday.
He firmly believes that Tesla will become the most valuable company in the world in the long term.
Musk urged employees to move forward with vehicle deliveries through the end of the quarter.
'Please do everything you can in the next few days and help with the delivery if possible.
It will make a real difference.” Tesla is offering its models in the US and China at a discounted price until the end of the year.
The electric car pioneer's shares recovered on Wednesday after falling 11 percent to a two-year low the previous day.
Investors feared a drop in demand because, according to internal plans, the lines at the Tesla plant in Shanghai are to stand still for almost two weeks in January.
This raises questions, because production would pause longer than is necessary for the celebrations of the Chinese New Year, wrote analyst Matthias Volkert from DZ Bank in a recent study.
Tesla is struggling with an uncertain sales trend in the Chinese market.
Since the beginning of the year, the price drop at Tesla has totaled 68 percent, making the group one of the biggest losers in the Nasdaq 100 index in 2022.
The company's market capitalization has now shrunk from more than $1.2 trillion in November 2021 to around $356 billion today.
Despite the price losses, Tesla is still valued higher on the stock exchange than the three German car manufacturers BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen together.
Lost trust in the capital market for the time being
There are several reasons for the drastic price slide in Tesla shares.
The tightening of monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve has had a negative impact on interest-sensitive technology stocks in particular.
There are also concerns about an apparently weakening demand.
An important factor is also CEO Musk.
To finance the $44 billion takeover of the short message service Twitter, Musk recently sold Tesla shares for almost $40 billion.
Many investors blame Musk for making headlines, especially with controversial changes on Twitter, and for having neglected Tesla.
Even Musk's announcement before Christmas that he would probably not sell any more Tesla shares for the next two years and that he would relinquish control of Twitter as soon as he had found a suitable successor did little to appease investors.
According to the analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya from the online bank Swissquote, Tesla has apparently lost confidence in the capital market for the time being.
Investors are now curious to see how the looming recession and competition from other manufacturers will affect demand and when Elon Musk will finally focus on Tesla's fortunes again.
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