In the first quarter results announcement, Tesla's Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said he would focus on Tesla management starting in May after receiving a poor report card.
According to the Associated Press and others on the 22nd (local time), Tesla reported a net profit of $409 million (approximately 584.052 billion won) for the first quarter of this year, a 71% drop compared to the same period last year. During the same period, sales amounted to $19.3 billion (approximately 27.5604 trillion won), down 9% year-over-year, falling short of Wall Street expectations.
Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki, known as a major early investor in Tesla, criticized it as "the worst performance in Tesla's history."
In response, CEO Musk stated during a conference call following the first-quarter results announcement that he would devote most of his time to Tesla starting in May. CEO Musk faced criticism from shareholders for straying from his main business while recently leading federal agency expenditure cuts at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration. As a result, Tesla's stock price rebounded by as much as 5% in after-hours transactions.
Once holding over 75% of the electric vehicle market share, Tesla is currently facing a complex crisis due to shrinking global demand, intensified competition, and U.S.-China trade conflicts. As resentment against CEO Musk grows, a boycott movement against Tesla is spreading, particularly in the U.S. and Europe, while competitors like BYD and General Motors (GM) are aggressively marketing through the development of new technologies. Tesla's global sales for the first quarter have decreased by 13% compared to the previous year.
Tesla believes it can maintain competitiveness from a tariff perspective since it produces all the vehicles sold in the U.S. at its factories in California and Texas. However, predictions suggest Tesla will also have to raise prices or bear a decrease in revenue since it imports components from Mexico and China. In fact, the development of Tesla's robo-taxi "Cybercab" is reportedly experiencing setbacks in production plans in the U.S. due to tariffs imposed against China.
While Wall Street analysts view CEO Musk's announcement positively, there are doubts about whether he can truly dedicate himself to Tesla. CEO Musk is currently running the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), the artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI, and the aerospace company SpaceX.
Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst, emphasized in an interview with the Associated Press, "Shareholders want CEO Musk to re-focus on Tesla management."