Elon Musk’s reign as Tesla CEO could be in trouble after the latest proposal from an early investor. Ross Gerber, who invested early in Tesla, has sold a large amount of his companies stocks in Tesla since Elon’s escapades in the limelight of American politics. With Tesla losing $800 billion in stock since December, it seems the wheels are about to come off for Elon Musk.
Has the Tesla board and investors had enough of Elon Musk?
Ross Gerber was an early investor in Tesla. He saw it as an integral part of the future of technology. The company made huge strides forward in the electric car market. Making it both financially viable and practical to produce and sell EV’s to the general public. The company was sitting at an all time high after the inauguration of Donald Trump and his supposed endorsement of Tesla and electric cars.
However, since then Musk has been unofficially leading the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, his cuts to government institutions and federal employees has seen a huge backlash against both Musk and Tesla. With Tesla stocks tanking and dealerships across the United States being vandalised and cars even being set on fire and shot at, Gerber has publicly voiced his opinion that Musk needs to step down as CEO of Tesla.
With Gerber’s wealth management company holding a relatively small amount of shares, the long time investor is seen as the voice of the disgruntled investors and board members of Tesla. With Elon Musk clearly focused on his new government role, among his many other commitments, Gerber said in an interview recently that Musk’s actions have had a terrible effect on the company.
Can Elon Musk fix things at one of his biggest and most profitable companies?
To be clear, Ross Gerber is not against the idea of Musk returning to a more full-time role at Tesla. His dedication and quite obvious obsessive nature means that he is, at least partially, responsible for the success seen by Tesla in the early days. The company is still the largest producer of electric cars in the world. But with the emergence of cheap electric cars out of countries like China, and the massive backlash from Tesla customers means a change is needed at Tesla.
Whether that means Elon Musk leaves his new role in DOGE and concentrates his energy once again on Tesla and his other companies, or bringing in a new CEO that can steer the ship back on its original, money making course, remains to be seen. With American politicians labelling Musk as an oligarch, his approach to running Tesla is being questioned by those that made the company a success to begin with.
It seems like nearly every day we are hearing about American citizens at town halls all across the country, questioning their elected officials on what they plan to do about Elon Musk’s supposed unregulated cutting of Federal employees. The public seems to have had enough of Musk, and apparently so has the board and people who used to be friendly with the infamous South African born businessman.
Is Tesla’s dominance of the market coming to an end because of Musk?
With the emergence of other EV cars and Tesla’s hold on sales slipping, the US market is open for opportunity. Ross Gerber and his associates would have Musk either come back and mend things at Tesla, or bring in a CEO that will concentrate on bringing the company back from the dead. With Tesla stocks at half what they were in December the time has come for Musk to make a choice.
