After Tesla Inc.'s shares closed their worst year ever, they continued to fall Thursday — a clear signal of investor concerns swirling around the leading electric-vehicle maker even as competitors like General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. look to steal some of its business in 2023.
Tesla's challenges are myriad: Gloomy macroeconomic conditions. Signs of softening demand. Headwinds in China, a key market for Tesla and EV sales broadly. Increasing scrutiny of its promises around the capabilities of Tesla's advanced driver assistance system. An aging product lineup. An EV market that promises to be more competitive than ever.
And then there is the spillover from CEO Elon Musk's messy takeover and management of social media site Twitter Inc., a purchase Musk funded by selling billions of dollars in Tesla stock. As these factors weigh on a company that has dominated the EV market for more than a decade, experts say it could prove advantageous for legacy manufacturers like GM and Ford as they accelerate their electrification strategies and aim to overtake Tesla.
