Elon Musk has signaled he’s gearing up for “wartime.”
Photographer: Joshua Lott/Getty Images
Elon Musk’s Robotaxi Dreams Plunge Tesla Into Chaos
The stock is sliding, a cheaper electric car is deprioritized and the CEO is riling the workforce with his biggest layoffs yet.
Elon Musk’s underlings at Tesla Inc. are accustomed to chaos. It comes with the territory of working for a chief executive who sets exacting targets and often abruptly switches directions — whose biographer describes his more intense moods as “demon mode.”
But even by Tesla standards, this year has been unruly. Its stock has slid more than 40% amid slumping sales, confusing product decisions and more price cuts. Its once-dominant position in China’s EV market is under assault. A visit with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an anticipated investment announcement was called off at the last minute. All the while, the board has tried to revive a $56 billion payout to Musk that a judge voided in January, on the grounds that directors had acted as “supine servants” to the CEO.