Tesla stock tumbles as bullish analyst throws in the towel, blaming tariffs and Elon Musk

Tesla bull Dan Ives yet threw successful the towel, slashing his terms people and citing Trump’s car tariffs and CEO Elon Musk's White House relation arsenic the reasons why.

The Wedbush expert maintained his Outperform standing but dropped his terms people to $315 from $550, a astir 43% haircut.

“The economical tariff Armageddon unleashed by the Trump Administration is simply a treble whammy for Tesla successful our view,” Ives said successful his note, adding that contempt not being arsenic exposed arsenic rivals similar GM and Ford, sourcing parts specified arsenic artillery cells from China volition beryllium a problem.

Tesla banal tumbled arsenic overmuch arsenic 4% astatine the open, but rebounded concisely connected refuted quality that Trump was considering a 90-day intermission connected tariffs. Shares were down much than 5% successful midmorning trade.

Nevertheless, Ives cited Tesla’s ongoing marque issues arsenic astir concerning.

“Tesla has fundamentally go a governmental awesome globally ... and that is simply a precise atrocious happening for the aboriginal of this disruptive tech stalwart and the marque situation tornado that has present turned into an F5 tornado,” Ives wrote, alluding to Musk’s governmental forays some successful the US and abroad.

He added: “We present estimation Tesla has lost/destroyed astatine slightest 10% of its aboriginal lawsuit basal globally based connected aforesaid created marque issues and this could beryllium a blimpish estimate. In Europe, this fig could beryllium 20% oregon higher....all self-inflicted by Musk.”

It’s not the archetypal clip Ives has complained astir Musk’s governmental engagement and asked for the CEO to absorption much connected his companies, but present Ives is intelligibly putting the blasted connected Tesla’’s deteriorating marque representation solely connected Musk.

Ives cites the ongoing quality of protests astatine Tesla showrooms astir the satellite starring to a “dark achromatic cloud” implicit the company’s stock, which is present down 43% twelvemonth to date.

Furthermore, the expert stresses that Tesla’s China concern — a cardinal portion for the “future success” of Tesla - is nether menace due to the fact that of Trump’s steep tariffs connected China and Musk’s closeness to the president. Ives predicts much and much Chinese consumers volition displacement to buying home EVs from BYD, Nio, XPeng, and different automakers.

While Tesla Model Y income did rebound successful March owed to the refreshed EV being disposable successful showrooms, wide the company’s China-made EV income dropped 11.5% successful the month.

Globally, Tesla reported a Q1 income slump of 336,681 deliveries versus 390,342 estimated, making it the worst 4th for deliveries since the 2nd 4th of 2022.

“This is simply a afloat blown situation Tesla is navigating present (along with these tariffs), and it is clip for Musk to measurement up, work the room, and beryllium a person successful this clip of uncertainty.”