Tesla hit fresh 2025 lows on Friday, but rebounded at a key level. Concerns are mounting that CEO Elon Musk's high-profile role with the Trump administration is causing serious deterioration in the EV giant's brand image in the U.S. and Europe.
Tesla stock in recent days has broken below potential floors at the 325-360 price range and the 300 level. It is now fighting to hold the 200-day moving average.
Tesla EV News
This week, Tesla has begun rolling out some more driver-assist functions in China, but not the Full Self-Driving in the U.S.. The early read on Tesla's latest features, which should improve with more training, is that it's not yet on par with systems from rival EV makers. Even with a full-fledged Level 2 system, Tesla may struggle to charge much in China for FSD, which goes for $8,000 in the U.S.
On Wednesday, new Model Y deliveries began in China, with the U.S. and Europe to follow next month. The Model Y accounts for a large majority of Tesla's EV sales, so the refreshed version is the biggest possible growth catalyst for Tesla in 2025.
So far this year, Tesla's Europe sales have tumbled vs. a year earlier, with indications of weak demand in the U.S. as well. Some of that reflects buyers waiting on the new Model Y, but Model 3 sales also are down sharply.
Analysts have slashed 2025 EPS estimates since the Q4 earnings report on Jan. 29.
Tesla filed an application late last year to launch a ride-hailing service in California, The Washington Post reported Thursday. That could eventually pave the way for a robotaxi service, but Tesla presumably would need a lengthy testing phase for that. Tesla has said it'll launch unsupervised robotaxis in Austin this June. However, the unofficial FSD tracker suggests the technology is a long way from true self driving.
Tesla Stock
Tesla stock fell to 273.60 Friday morning, a fresh three-month low and undercutting the 200-day line. But shares bounced back for a 3.9% gain to 293.58, snapping a six-session slide.
Shares dived 27.6% in February, beginning with a gap below the 50-day line. TSLA stock is 40% below the Dec. 18 all-time high of 488.54.
The market capitalization fell back below $1 trillion on Tuesday and was $942 billion as of Friday's close.
The 200-day moving average, now around 279, is crucial support.
Below the 200-day line? The 264.86 buy point, which Tesla cleared in a Nov. 6 post-election gap up.
Tesla stock nearly round-tripping its huge postelection run is not a coincidence.
Shares spiked in November and to the Dec. 18 peak on optimism that Musk's close ties to President Donald Trump would benefit Tesla. But so far Musk's involvement and highly political social media posts appear to have caused further brand damage to the EV maker, especially among its core customer bases in the U.S.
Tesla stock has a 21-day average true range of just over 5%. The ATR metric is available on IBD's MarketSurge charting tool. It gauges the characteristic breadth of a stock's behavior. Stocks that tend to make large jumps or dives in daily action, the kind that can trigger sell rules and shake investors out of a stock, have a high ATR. Stocks that tend to make more incremental moves have lower ATRs.
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