Market Minute: Will Musk Pivot Fix Tesla (TSLA) After Rough E.U. Sales?

Tesla (TSLA) shares have seen a boost since Elon Musk announced he would be returning to the company, but he’s seemingly done significant damage to its brand since his foray into politics. The turnaround the Street hopes for may not be swift.

The European Automobile Manufacturer’s Association announced that Tesla sales in Europe fell by 49% in April, with 7,261 vehicles sold. This doesn’t reflect E.U. EV skepticism: total battery electric car sales jumped by 34% at the same time. Chinese competitor BYD reaped the rewards, outselling Tesla for the first time – despite significantly higher tariff rates on BYD.

Musk’s support for the far-right German party AfD infuriated many Europeans, and protests sparked at Tesla dealerships on the continent just like they did in the U.S. On top of this, Tesla has had labor issues in Europe before, including in Scandinavia. 

Investors may not be bothered, though. Jeffrey Small, President of Arbor Financial, said on Schwab Network on Wednesday that TSLA shares were “certainly not going up” because of their vehicle business, but because the market is betting on its AI leadership. To that end, Tesla wrote in its last shareholder deck that it is preparing for the “launch of FSD (Supervised) in Europe this year, pending regulatory approval.”

On the U.S. side, Bloomberg reported that Tesla is planning to launch its robotaxi service in Austin, TX on June 12. Musk tweeted on May 29 that self-driving Model Ys had used “public streets with no incidents,” and bragged, “Next month, first self-delivery from factory to customer.” 

Tesla has been known to overpromise and underdeliver – see the cheap model that has never become available – but if it can crack this next step, it could change the whole game again, like it did at its beginning. If so, maybe Musk’s negative press will be washed away with a tidal wave of investment hype. On the stock side, shares of Tesla are down 11% year-to-date, but up around 103% over the last year, with plenty of room to run back towards December’s all-time high of $488.54.