As Tesla Inc.’s “going private” chaos turns more ominous, investors are taking a step back.
Shares of the electric vehicle maker dropped 3 percent in early trading on Friday, and are now down more than 14 percent since Elon Musk tweeted last week about his plans to take the company private, taking the market by surprise.
The latest turn in the drama came late on Thursday, when the New York Times reported a teary-eyed Musk saying that no one had seen or reviewed the tweet before he posted it while driving himself to the airport. Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is said to have been amping up the pressure on the company, asking for more information on Musk’s communication with the board. Tesla is also said to have received a subpoena from the agency.
Meanwhile, the debate over the company’s Model 3 car rages on.
Evercore ISI analysts George Galliers and Arndt Ellinghorst on Thursday said production of the sedan was continuing unabated in the midst of the going-private confusion, and Tesla seemed “well on the way” to achieving a steady weekly production rate of 5,000 to 6,000 units per week. The Bloomberg tracker for Model 3 also shows a similar uptick.
On the other hand, UBS analyst Colin Langan said the basic Model 3, expected to be priced at $35,000, would lose about $6,000 per car. The company is currently is not offering the base model on its website.
To contact the reporter on this story: Esha Dey in New York at edey@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Courtney Dentch at cdentch1@bloomberg.net, Will Daley, Steven Fromm
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