Can ‘folk hero’ Musk push Tesla to new heights? – Bloomberg debate
LONDON — Tesla had a rocky start to the year with vehicle deliveries down by 31% from 2018's fourth quarter. But there may be a lifeline for electric vehicle makers including Tesla from American lawmakers. A bi-partisan group plan to introduce a bill to expand federal tax credits for buyers of electric cars. This after an existing $7,500 tax credit which phases out over 15 months was halved for Tesla buyers in the beginning of the year. The bill dubbed the Driving America Forward Act would grant automakers a $7,000 tax credit for an additional 400,000 vehicles. Tesla shares rose by 1.6% on the news. In the meantime, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk is in a legal dispute with the US Security and Exchange Commission after the SEC said Musk violated their 2018 agreement when he tweeted in February that Tesla will make half a million cars in 2019. On the 4th of April 2019, a federal judge gave him and the SEC two weeks to come to a settlement urging Musk "to put his reasonable pants on." In a Bloomberg debate on Tesla's future, the CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth Management, Ross Gerber dismissed the controversy around Musk saying he was becoming a folk hero in America, while David Kudla, the CEO of Mainstay Capital said that Tesla was past its peak. – Linda van Tilburg
We've had a very disappointing number here on deliveries for first quarter. Certainly, if we look at the overall number – from almost 91,000 during the last quarter, we're down to 63,000 vehicles this quarter – 31% decline and that's before the wave of competition coming domestically and globally. We're just seeing the initial part of that coming for Tesla, so that's why we think we've seen peak Tesla is behind us.
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