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Comment by MilnerRoute | Hacker News Reader

While today's 14% drop sounds bad, that's really just giving up part of the big spike they got after the election. Another way to say it?

"Tesla's shares haven't been this low since... October."

UPDATED COMMENT: On the other hand, that spike in November was so huge, CNBC is also correct when they say...

Since peaking at $479.86 on Dec. 17, Tesla shares have lost over 50% of their value, wiping out over $800 billion in market cap.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/10/tesla-shares-plunge-14percen...

Ironically, CNBC thinks Tesla's drop is actually tied to actions taken by the Trump administration:

The downdraft in Tesla’s stock on Monday was tied to uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s plans on tariffs. Canada and Mexico are key markets for automotive suppliers, and increased tariffs, with the potential for a trade war, will likely impact production and lead to higher prices.

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But is there any reason to think it would have happened this fast (or at all) if not for his behavior/persona?

Isn’t the new model Y out? Shouldn’t that boost things? Sales are reportedly tanking all over the globe.

This isn’t a market correction where the price adjusts despite reasonable fundamentals. Something has gone seriously wrong and is seriously effecting things.

And we all know who that something is.

No, this is all your assumption lol. Sales are "tanking" due to the model Y rollout, which was best selling car in the world last 2 years at roughly double the cost of the 2nd best selling car.

I’ve seen other people say that and frankly I’m skeptical. Tesla is firmly past the “techie only“ crowd.

I suspect the majority of their sales are the kind of “normal“ people who aren’t looking to wait for the next refresh and just want to buy a car right now cause they need one.

Are some people waiting for the refresh to be available to them? Sure. Enough to take sales everywhere? I seriously doubt it. I suspect the vast majority of their buyers wouldn’t even know a refresh was coming.

But we’ll find out pretty fast won’t we. If sales pick up back to normal pretty quickly then maybe you’re right.

But if they keep slumping further and further then the refresh argument will start to lose a lot of credibility.

They've already picked back up, I check the numbers weekly

I hear this a lot but I've not heard any coherent explanation for how Musk's actions don't hurt the brand. Obviously as a billionaire being a big fan of the Republican party would hardly be a surprise, he could have supported them, even donated large sums to them without any significant backlash. But becoming a key part of the administration instantly alienates half of the country, and by extension the customer base. And that is before you get into his "Roman salute" antics.

It’s especially bad when you think about the people who bought Teslas early. I’m sure the CEO of Toyota has views which would annoy many Prius owners but they’ve been wise enough to make it easy for prospective owners to never once even think about them, whereas Musk seems determined to make it impossible to ignore.

I mean even if you just look at it from the point of view that having Musk as your "ideas guy" is a pretty good proxy for success. How can the fact that he's spending most of his time as some kind of political missionary rather than on developing the business be a positive thing?

The S&P500 has increased since the election. Tesla is now down nearly 10% since election day's valuation.

If I look back to October 2021 it has lost value. Tsla stock was already struggling before the election compared to previous years. This feels like cope.

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