Tesla CEO Elon Musk is politically firmly aligned with former President Donald Trump, but it’s unclear what a potential Trump administration would mean for the electric car maker that pays Musk billions of dollars — even for Musk himself.
In a conference call with financial analysts on Tuesday, Wells Fargo director Colin Langan asked Musk to explain the impact of a Trump victory and the potential elimination of the federal $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles.
“I think it’s going to have some impact,” Musk said. “It would be devastating to our competitors and slightly hurt Tesla.”
The CEO also noted that Tesla would cancel investments in a factory it had planned to open in Monterey in 2026 due to Trump’s pledge to impose high tariffs on cars produced in Mexico. “He said. Yesterday, Musk denied reports that he was pouring $45 million a month into the Trump campaign.
talking about CNBC Ahead of the earnings call, Wedbush Securities technical analyst Dan Ives said a Trump presidency could have a negative impact on the overall electric vehicle market because Trump could cancel Inflation Reduction Act and tax credits for electric vehicles and certain plug-in hybrids. That means an administration led by presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris could have a positive impact on the electric vehicle industry.
However, Ives said Trump may be better suited to promote the regulatory agenda needed for full self-driving and self-driving, a key component of Tesla’s growth strategy.
“Under the Biden administration, Musk has been background noise, and under the Trump administration, is that going to become more important?” Ives said. “That’s why I say Tesla is part of the Trump deal.”
Musk dismissed the idea that regulators might balk at a fleet of self-driving robotaxis built by Tesla without steering wheels and pedals. One analyst asked Musk to explain why regulatory risk is not an issue for Tesla after General Motors halted production of its steering-wheel-less Origin cars in favor of the Chevrolet Bolt in part because of regulations. The Cruise Origin self-driving car needs approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration because it does not have the traditional manual controls such as a steering wheel and pedals required by current safety regulations and is written for use in cars with human drivers and is not fully applicable. .
“The primary reason for switching from Origin to Bolt is that we eliminate regulatory risk,” GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said. Reuters Report.
“The real reason they canceled the project was because GM couldn’t make it work,” Musk said, adding that the automaker’s technology “wasn’t up to par.” He said blaming regulators was “misleading”.
GM Executive Director Jim Cain said wealth Musk is completely wrong.
“All of these statements are absolutely false,” Cain said during the earnings call following Musk’s comments. “The Origin vehicle encountered many hurdles in obtaining certification because it has no steering wheel, no brake pedal, and it has a unique seating arrangement that requires a federal motor vehicle safety exemption — a full stop.”
Kane said cruise ship technology is improving every day due to the way it uses data sets through artificial intelligence. “To date, they have driven more than 5 million miles of fully autonomous driving, while Tesla has driven exactly zero miles.”
Musk has unshakable confidence in Tesla’s ability to “solve the self-driving problem,” something he reiterated on Tuesday even as Tesla reported financial results that showed a 45% drop in net profit, marking the company’s second Quarterly growth was weak and quarterly profits fell for the fourth consecutive quarter. Auto industry data also shows that Tesla’s popularity in California continues to decline, with sales falling 24% in the second quarter. Trump, meanwhile, pledged to end what he called the “new green scam” and pledged to “repeal the electric vehicle mandate from day one.”
Ives said that if autonomous driving is Tesla’s strategic future, then reducing regulations may be more beneficial to Tesla, which is more likely to happen under Trump’s presidency than Harris’s.
Ives said the “most important thing” for investors is how the company will impact the robotics market and its efforts toward fully autonomous and self-driving cars. Ultimately, this is how the company could reach a $1 trillion or even $2 trillion valuation, he added.
