Tesla in the doldrums as Elon Musk offers political advice

Tesla stock is one of the more volatile among big-cap publicly listed corporations, and the last day's performance has demonstrated once again that there is still a lot of uncertainty with regard to its values.

Tesla stock fell over 8.6% in value during yesterday's New York trading session, adding a further downturn to the 14.6% it has lost over the five day moving average.

Opinions vary on what caused this particular collapse in value, however it did coincide with reports that the company's record delivery figures for its electric cars had shown how challenging it can be to secure vehicle transportation capacity and at a reasonable cost, but surely there must be more to it than that?

Record deliveries of a product which is manufactured by a publicly listed company with shareholders to please usually brings confidence and Tesla's revolutionization of the entire automotive industry toward electric vehicles plus its standing as a huge market contender globally should go along with these record delivery figures nicely.

But it didn't.

Some dissenters consider that the entry level Tesla models such as the Model 3 and Model Y are quite simply not premium products, and despite their pricetag, are not much more well equipped or better engineered than budget cars from established brands in Europe and Asia at less than half the cost, giving rise to a possible feeling of marketing over substance.

That still wouldn't be enough to create such a downturn in share price though, because the cars are selling in high numbers and the revenues are pouring in more than ever.

Increased operating costs are one perhaps interesting area to examine. An expert in balancing the books, rival car manufacturer Ford Motor Company, recently said that inflation-related costs would be $1 billion more than expected in the third quarter and that parts shortages had delayed deliveries.

However, it may well be Elon Musk's tendency to go down the political path in the public arena that has had some effect.

Yesterday, Elon Musk said that, in the current geopolitical conflict, UN-supervised elections in four occupied regions that Moscow has falsely annexed after what it called referendums. "Russia leaves if it is the will of the people" he said, prompting a Twitter response from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Politics and business often do not mix, and the more conservative investors often take a dim view of involvement in such situations which can create commercial risk.

Elon Musk is no stranger to that, of course, and has in the past caused crashes and booms by taking to Twitter to voice his opinion!

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