How is Tesla Faring as Musk Focuses on Twitter?

While Elon Musk is often associated with The Boring Company, Starlink, Neuralink, or SpaceX, his closest affiliation remains with Tesla.  Over the past year, however, the billionaire's attention has clearly been focused on the reimagining of Twitter.  With that being case, how has Tesla been performing as of late, and what notable developments involving the company have occurred?

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA)

Tesla, Inc. is both an electric vehicle and clean energy company.  While it is renowned for its lineup of electric vehicles, it has increasingly expanded operations over the years to include solar energy products and energy storage solutions as well, such as the Powerwall and Solar Roof.

Regardless of the product, Tesla's goal is to promote global energy sustainability through electrification and automation.  Notably, Tesla has also become a major data aggregator, allowing it to develop the foundations for future autonomous taxi services, in addition to ancillary technologies like artificial intelligence.

Tesla was founded in 2003, and is based out of Texas, United States.

Market Cap: $9.18B

Price to Earnings Ratio (P/E): 84.84

Earnings Per Share (EPS): $3.40

At the time of writing, Tesla (TSLA) boasted the above metrics and is listed as a ‘Buy' among most major investment firms.

Cybertruck Assembly Line

Although there have been delays since it was first announced, production of the Cybertruck has officially begun.  First announced in 2019, the Cybertruck is expected to be listed between $40,000 and $70,000 depending on trim level, making it quite appealing among the current crop of EV pickups.  In fact, competition among similar vehicles is building to the point that Ford has been forced to slash prices on its F-150 Lightning by almost $10,000.  Despite being widely praised, the F-150 Lightning is reported to have massively undershot expectations with only 15,000 units sold over 2022.  With the Cybertruck set to soon be on offer, boasting better value, it isn't surprising that Ford was forced to make such a move.

Source: www.tesla.com/cybertruck

The Cybertruck, which is being built in Texas, currently boasts an impressive 1.6M reservations.  With a production target of 375,000 units per year, this means that customers may not see their Cybertruck until 2027 – and that is if everything goes according to plan.

Sharing is Caring

While the first Cybertruck officially rolling off the assembly line is exciting news, another recent development is, arguably, more important – the adoption of Tesla's charging network among competing manufacturers.

As it stands, the following are a few examples of the companies that have each reached agreements with Tesla to use its charging network across the United States.

• Electrify America
• Ford
• General Motors
• Mercedes-Benz
• Polestar
• Volvo

This network adoption is important, as it instantly makes EVs as a whole more appealing by lowering range anxiety due to a lack of accessible charging stations, in addition to increasing convenience through seamless interoperability.

Unfair Compensation

On another note, Bloomberg reports that Tesla's directors, including CEO Elon Musk, have recently agreed to return over $735 million in stock and cash to settle a lawsuit brought forth by a Michigan-based pension fund in 2020.

The suit, which alleges improper board member compensation also included names like Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison, James Murdoch, and Kimbal Musk – each of which will relinquish stock grants and cash from already exercised options. The settlement also included mandatory changes for corporate governance and future board-level compensation reviews.

As part of the settlement, board members agreed to forgo their 2021 compensation and hire an independent consultant for future director-pay issues. The agreement still awaits approval from the Delaware Chancery Court to become final. The total settlement includes $458,649,785 in stocks and $276,616,720 in cash.

In 2018 alone, Tesla's non-employee directors received stock grants worth more than $8.7 million.  It should be noted that, despite the decision to settle, the board denied any wrongdoing.  Rather, it notes that a settlement was viewed as the best way to avoid further litigation costs and uncertainty.

Final Word

While Musk may be busy overseeing a revamp of Twitter, he is, at the end of the day, only one man.  Tesla has grown into one of the world's largest EV manufacturers, and its team clearly hasn't missed a beat.

Between Cybertrucks finally rolling off the line, putting its compensation lawsuit in the rearview, and widespread adoption of its charging network, the importance and influence of Tesla shows no signs of waning.  The bottom line is that, despite legacy car manufacturers working hard to electrify their lineups, Tesla remains the face of EVs in North America.