Elon Musk is used to facing critics, haters and detractors. He even relishes these battles.
Sometimes he provokes his supposed enemies. The Techno King, as he's known at Tesla (TSLA), likes to turn his opponents' attacks back on them with counterattacks. The serial entrepreneur is never as lethal as when he is on defense.
He knows their angles of attack. Certainly some of these criticisms annoy him, but he always finds the response to repel them.
He can also count on his legions of fans, many of whom are die-hard Tesla fans. They believe in his promises of transforming the world and beyond our civilization. They applaud his iconoclastic side and laud him as a genius when he announces a new product.
The billionaire always figured he could count on these admirers for support.
What he never anticipated was that some of these fans would come after him.
The Revolt of the Retail Investor
For several weeks now, Tesla's chief executive has been the target of repeated criticism from some retail investors.
Investor Leo KuGuan, who is the car maker's third-largest individual shareholder after Musk and Oracle (ORCL) Co-Founder Larry Ellison, went so far as to sound a revolt against Musk.
"I am 100% in Tesla bc I believe in Elon Musk and Tesla," KoGuan wrote on Twitter on Jan. 7. "But he is killing SH and Tesla. If I knew I wouldn’t invest in Tesla."
"Elon invested ≈$200mm but took out $40B, Larry invested $1B, I invested over $3B, I have no choice but to act and speak out. I cry out to U for help!"
These criticisms are the consequence of Tesla's stock-market rout. In 2022, Tesla stock lost almost two-thirds (65%) of its value, translating to more than $600 billion in market capitalization evaporated in a year. Tesla's market value is currently $357 billion, down from over $1 trillion at the start of 2022. Over the first four trading sessions of 2023, Tesla shares lost another 8.2%, to $113.06.
While Musk attributes this stock market disaster to macroeconomic factors like the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hike to fight inflation and the energy crisis in Europe, many Tesla shareholders say that his acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion is the big problem.
They claim that when Musk set his sights on the social-media platform, he left Tesla behind. Worse, he has alienated many Tesla buyers by regularly attacking progressives and Democrats more generally on Twitter. They are natural buyers of his advanced green cars.
Tesla Outperforms Its Rivals
Retail investors together own 41.9% of Tesla shares as of Dec. 5, according to WallStreetZen. Institutional investors hold the biggest block with 43.01% of the shares. The balance is held by the company's executives, about 15%.
While Musk once responded to some criticism a while back, he's lately been quiet.
No doubt this stems from the quiet period leading up to the publication of the company's earnings on Jan. 25. Until that date, the management team must remain silent so as not to influence the share price.
But Musk has just found a subtle and striking way to respond to the criticism, which has turned violent in recent days.
The entrepreneur has just retweeted a chart that shows that of all the major automakers present on the American market, only Tesla and General Motors (GM) managed to increase sales of light vehicles in 2022 from 2021. All the rest of the vehicle manufacturers have seen their sales decrease compared with 2021.
Tesla saw its sales increase 44% over one year while those of GM edged up 3%.
Musk said nothing else.
