Years in the past, when Biden took workplace, the main electrical automobile firm wasn’t invited to Washington’s EV Summit. “Yeah, appears odd that Tesla wasn’t invited,” the corporate’s CEO Elon Musk mentioned in a tweet.
In actual fact, Biden credited GM’s Mary Barra as being the EV business chief. “Mary, you electrified the whole auto business, you led,” Biden gushed — apparently unaware that GM delivered a paltry 26 EVs in This fall 2021.
And it solely obtained worse.
Lawsuits started to pile up. Did the Biden administration resort to utilizing “lawfare” in opposition to Elon Musk? Laborious to say. Nevertheless, in line with CNBC, beneath the Biden administration, “Musk’s corporations are presently embroiled in a spread of probes and lawsuits from federal companies pertaining to issues together with alleged securities regulation violations, office security, labor and civil rights violations, violations of federal environmental legal guidelines, shopper fraud and automobile security defects… [spanning] 19 recognized ongoing federal investigations and lawsuits in opposition to Tesla, SpaceX and X, previously often known as Twitter.”
Presumably essentially the most public court docket case was Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware’s choice in 2024 to kill Elon Musk’s $55 billion compensation bundle. This would go away the CEO of Tesla with none compensation from Tesla for six years. Bloomberg reviews, “Musk logged 1000’s of hours on the helm of Tesla and elevated its market worth ten-fold.”
Does this Delaware choose’s choice to halt Musk’s pay “odor” of lawfare?
And this choice is now beneath much more scrutiny after a vote at Tesla’s Shareholder Assembly (once more) confirmed he deserves to obtain his pay bundle. Just lately, the Delaware choose acknowledged, “I write to tell you that I intention to concern that call earlier than the tip of this yr.” Hmmm, we’ll see how that call unfolds.
At finest, Tesla’s CEO has been slighted and snubbed by the Biden administration. At worst, Musk has withstood an unrelenting assault over the previous 4 years. If these court docket circumstances, probes, and lawsuits start to abate beneath the Trump administration, it’s possible that Tesla inventory, as a long-term funding, turns into massively “de-risked” for its shareholders. It’s conceivable that Elon Musk, unburdened by these assaults, may have the ability to run the corporate extra successfully.
In actual fact, the Trump crew may create insurance policies that might (gasp) really be constructive for Tesla. Working example — this week, Bloomberg Information reported Trump’s transition crew has instructed advisers it plans to make a “federal framework” for full self-driving (FSD) one of many Transportation Division’s priorities, in line with individuals aware of the matter. This might assist Tesla fast-track its rollout for robotaxis within the not-so-distant future.
That mentioned, not all of Trump’s insurance policies will assist EV automakers. Already, Trump’s crew communicated its want to get rid of the $7,500 tax credit score for electrical autos. However even that might profit Tesla. Elon Musk’s automaker has margins that may face up to shedding the tax credit score. Certain, it’ll sting but it surely’s possible that Detroit and Europe’s automakers want it extra. It’s affordable to imagine Tesla may acquire market share within the coming years as different automakers may gradual EV manufacturing.
In line with Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, Trump’s insurance policies must be a “homerun for Tesla… Tesla has the dimensions and scope that’s unmatched within the EV business and this dynamic may give Musk and Tesla a transparent aggressive benefit in a non-EV subsidy atmosphere, coupled by possible greater China tariffs that might proceed to push away cheaper Chinese language EV gamers (BYD, Nio, and so forth.) from flooding the U.S. market over the approaching years.”
Ultimately, Elon Musk ought to acquire traction with the brand new administration contemplating his shut relationship with Trump and his work on the forthcoming DOGE (Division of Authorities Effectivity). How this all impacts Tesla stays to be seen. However one factor is evident — shareholders of Tesla ought to really feel some aid because the inventory has been “de-risked” transferring ahead.
===
Co-founder of EVANNEX, Matt Pressman owns each a Tesla Mannequin S and Mannequin 3 and stays a long-term investor in TSLA inventory. He’s written extensively about Tesla and his work has been printed in CleanTechnica, InsideEVs, and Teslarati. He’s additionally appeared quite a few occasions on Fox Enterprise Information and PBS to supply his views on Elon Musk and Tesla.
